Rizzoli & Isles: Season 8
by SilenceintheLibrary13
Summary: My fantasy 8th season! The night before their Paris trip, Maura makes a move, and the trip becomes more than either of them bargained for. She and Jane come back a month later ready to begin their life together, and almost everyone they know is happy for them. Almost. ***Winner of the 2018 Rizzles Award of Distinction for Best Canon Storyline!***
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Maura couldn't sleep.

She needed to sleep. She had to get to the airport in the morning to check in for her early afternoon flight to Paris. Maura preferred to be well-rested when leaving on a vacation. But she couldn't sleep because she was too excited, so excited her heart was pounding.

It wasn't the trip itself that was making her that excited. Of course she was excited to be going. She loved Paris, and she was looking forward to finishing her book. But it wasn't her first time going; she'd been to Paris many times before, in another life, when she had travelled on her own whenever she could.

But that was back when she had nothing to stay home for. That was before Jane. And this solitary trip to Paris was supposed to be her return to that old life, or something resembling that old life; a life when all that mattered was finding new ways to occupy her time. She planned to leave for Paris right before Jane left for Quantico so she wouldn't have to see her leave, so she could spend a month learning to live on her own again without feeling the emptiness of her home without Jane.

Jane's decision to move to Quantico had been a devastating blow to Maura, although she tried not to let on just how devastating. Jane felt the need to take her life in a new direction, and it was Maura's job to support her. It was just very upsetting to Maura, not just because it meant no longer getting to see Jane every day (which was what her life had come to revolve around), but because it meant Maura was wrong to have ever thought there was a chance of them moving beyond friendship. Jane _clearly_ wasn't capable of being interested in Maura in that way. It was nothing but wishful thinking on Maura's part to have ever imagined that Jane felt something too and just needed time to accept it. Now Jane was going to go start a relationship with Agent Davies, maybe even marry him and have his baby like she'd almost done with Casey, and Maura was going to spend her life alone.

Everything had sort of been turned on its head tonight, though, when Jane told Maura she was coming to Paris _with_ her. That news really changed everything. Now, instead of spending a month learning to be alone again, Maura was going to be with Jane, only Jane, for the longest stretch of time ever. They'd gone on trips together before, but not for a whole month! This was beyond her wildest imaginings. And, she hardly dared to think about what it might mean, but it certainly meant Jane wasn't nearly as excited about moving to Quantico and spending more time with Agent Davies as Maura had thought she was. Actually, at least for the time being, Jane was choosing Maura over him! So of course Maura's mind was spinning with the possibilities now, and that was one of the reasons why she couldn't sleep.

The other reason was that Jane was in her bed right now.

At one time, that would have been nothing out of the ordinary. She and Jane used to have impromptu sleepovers all the time. And it certainly made sense tonight, since they were leaving together in the morning. But over the past few years, those sleepovers had dwindled until they were practically non-existent. Instead of crashing at Maura's, Jane would get up and say she'd better get home, no matter how late it was. Maura learned to say the same at Jane's, rather than impose. She didn't know what had caused the shift in Jane's attitude towards sleepovers, and she had been afraid to ask. So having Jane here tonight kind of felt like a big deal. In fact, having her so close after that rush of emotion when she found out Jane was coming to Paris with her almost felt dangerous. Maura was afraid she would lose control, that she would do one of the things she had longed for years to do, like run her fingers through those wild curls or along a smooth, olive-toned collar bone. Or just flat-out kiss her. Instead she lay very still with her eyes squeezed shut and tried to will herself to fall asleep. Which wasn't happening.

At some point, Jane got out of bed and padded to the bathroom. Maura took the opportunity to grab her phone and check the time. 3:21 am. Oh, she hoped she would be able to sleep on the plane!

When she heard Jane coming back from the bathroom, she closed her eyes again and tried to look like she was sleeping peacefully. Her heart sped up as she felt the mattress sinking under Jane's weight. Jane seemed to just sit there for a few minutes, and Maura began to wonder what was going on. Jane wasn't having second thoughts about the whole thing, was she? Maura wasn't sure she could handle it if Jane said she wasn't coming to Paris after all, or that she was coming but not staying the whole time.

Suddenly the mattress shifted again as Jane leaned forwards and planted a feather-light kiss on Maura's hairline. Maura's eyes flew open in surprise.

"Oh, sorry," whispered Jane. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Oh, it's fine, I…I'm really too excited to sleep." Maura looked up at Jane shyly, feeling as though her heart was about to leap right out of her chest.

Jane looked at her for a moment. "Well, I guess we'd better try," she said, pulling the blankets over herself and lying back down.

"Yes," agreed Maura. "Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're coming with me."

Jane smiled. "Yeah, me too. It'll be fun."

"What made you decide to come?"

Jane bit her lip. "I guess I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to you yet. And you kept crying when I talked about leaving. I wanted to make you smile again."

"It's still going to be hard when you go." It would hurt even more, she realized, but it would be worth it.

"I know, but we don't have to worry about that now. We have a whole month in France together to just hang out, and you can show me all your favorite French things."

"Aren't you worried that delaying your arrival in Quantico could impact your relationship with Agent Davies?"

Jane frowned. "I don't _have_ a relationship with Agent Davies."

"You're considering one."

"I'm considering the possibility of starting one after I move. I don't really know for sure. What I do know is that you're my best friend and I want to spend time with you, and if Agent Davies finds someone else or loses interest in that time, then so be it. You're a bigger priority to me."

Maura's heart swelled. "Oh, Jane."

"Oh, don't act surprised. You know how important you are to me. The whole world knows. Even Alice Sands knew."

"Sometimes I think I know, and sometimes I'm not sure," Maura admitted softly.

Jane turned to face her. "What do you mean? Sometimes you think you're _not_ important to me?"

"No, I know I am, but…sometimes I'm not sure how much, or in what way."

"In what way?"

Maura bit her lip. She was treading on dangerous territory. If she said the wrong thing, Jane might not feel comfortable going away with her anymore, and Maura would be crushed if that happened. Still, she felt like she'd held it in for too long.

"Nobody else has a friendship quite like ours," she said finally. "Sometimes people make…comments, that they're not sure what the nature of our relationship is. And I'm never really sure what to tell them, except that I don't know either."

"You don't? I thought…I thought you just thought of me as your best friend."

"I do, but you've also come to feel like my significant other, even though we don't have a romantic relationship. And I've spent a lot of time wondering what that means, or what it could mean. What I want it to mean. But I guess…you don't really think about it."

"No, I do," Jane said, her words sounding funny, as if she had forced them out.

Maura looked up in surprise. "You do?"

"Yeah, a little. I try not to think about it too much. But, that's kind of why I decided to go on this trip with you."

"Why?"

Jane rubbed her face. "Kent says I run away from my feelings."

"Well, I know sometimes you have trouble facing your feelings about certain things, but I wouldn't say you run away."

"Maybe not always, but I have been running away from this. So I thought, maybe it's time to get braver. Maybe I need to just shut out the other noise and spend some time with you, you know? Maybe we both need to figure some things out."

Maura blinked back tears. "Jane, that's…I think that's a wonderful idea. I think we could use the time together. There's been a lot going on. We've hardly had a quiet moment to ourselves since…really, since the whole thing with Alice Sands started."

Jane nodded. "I just don't want you to get hurt, and I'm afraid anything I do is going to hurt you in some way."

"Why would you think that?"

Jane reached out hesitantly, her fingers lightly touching Maura's hair. "We'll talk about it more in Paris, okay? We need to get a little sleep."

"Okay." Maura looked at Jane wistfully, and Jane was looking at her in a way she hadn't done in years. She used to look at Maura that way a lot, early in their friendship, her eyes moving to Maura's lips and then back up again as though she planned to kiss her. Maura had wondered what it meant at the time, but she wasn't that good at reading people in those days. Now that she saw Jane doing it again after all this time, she didn't want to let another chance pass her by. Before she could talk herself out of it, she put her hand on Jane's face and kissed her.

She wasn't prepared for the electric current that surged through her body the second their lips met. She pulled back sooner than planned because she was overwhelmed by it, completely taken aback.

"Maura," said Jane softly. "I don't…know if that's a good idea right now. Let's just get some sleep, and we'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

Maura nodded and reluctantly turned her back to Jane, certain she wouldn't sleep at all if she could still see her. She wanted more than anything to kiss her again, to feel that electric current once more and see where it would take them, but Jane was right: tonight was not the best time. They would have plenty of time for exploring in Paris, and they needed to rest. And Maura felt like she finally was on the verge of sleep, in spite of the monumental thing that had just happened. Something had stilled inside of her, had calmed her fears for the time being. She didn't know what would happen next, if Jane would ever want to kiss her again, if she had even felt the electric current that made every cell in Maura's body feel alive. But she did know one thing, and that one thing gave her hope.

Jane had kissed her back.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Jane wasn't at all ready to get up when Maura's first alarm went off, but she didn't want to keep lying in bed, either. She just wanted to get on the plane and get where they were going. She wanted to be alone with Maura someplace new and see what happened, see if the change of scenery provided any clarity regarding what she should do next.

That kiss last night had certainly thrown her for a loop. She's spent the past seven years wishing she could kiss Maura, and never once had it occurred to her that Maura would like it if she did. A few times she'd nearly done it anyway, but that was years ago. She'd learned better control since then. Now her mind was going around and around, trying to figure it out. What if she'd kissed Maura the first time she thought about it? How would Maura have reacted back then? Would they have been a couple all this time, and if so, would they both be better off? Or would it have just made Maura even more likely to be targeted by anyone who wanted to hurt Jane?

And that was the same conundrum she was faced with now. Which was better for Maura in the long run? She certainly hoped this trip would help her figure it out.

Neither of them mentioned the kiss while they were getting ready, or on the way to the airport, or while waiting for their plane. When the time came to board, Jane went to her assigned seat – across the aisle and a few rows back from Maura – and considered whether she should try to switch seats with someone or just stay where she was, giving them both more time to think before they landed. But then she saw a well-dressed man take his seat beside Maura and smile at her like Christmas had come early.

"Oh, hell, no," Jane muttered, getting up and making her way down the aisle. "Excuse me," she said, flashing the man a big, phony smile, "My girlfriend and I are traveling together, but there was a little mix-up and our seats aren't next to each other. Would you mind switching with me? My seat's just back there."

"Oh," the man said, frowning. "Uh…"

"She's pregnant," Jane added. "I'm worried she might lose her lunch when the plane takes off. I'd hate for you to have to deal with that."

"Right, of course we can switch," he said, grabbing his bag. Jane showed him to his new seat and then plopped down in the one he had vacated.

"Pregnant?" said Maura, her eyebrows raised.

"Well, calling you my girlfriend apparently wasn't enough to make him get lost."

Maura chuckled. "We haven't done that in a while. Pretend we're a couple, I mean, so a man would leave us alone."

Jane shrugged. "After a while, it didn't feel like pretending anymore, did it?"

Maura looked at her thoughtfully. "Maybe it was the rest of the time when we were pretending."

Jane looked down at her hands. "So, I assume you don't mind sharing your hotel room with me?"

"Of course not. I thought I'd be alone, though, so there's only one bed."

"That's fine. We've shared a bed before. The most recent time being last night."

"Yes." Maura looked at Jane thoughtfully, and Jane imagined they were both thinking the same thing: if they continued to share a bed, night after night, would there be more kissing? Would there be…other things, besides kissing? Would things get awkward? There were so many questions, and no answers yet.

It was early afternoon in Boston when they left, but they were flying forwards in time as they headed over the Atlantic, and in just a few hours the sun was setting.

"I could be," Maura said softly as they were finishing their dinner. "Your girlfriend, I mean. I actually could be, if you wanted."

Jane looked at her. "That is the impression I'm starting to get."

"But you don't want it?"

"I never said that." Jane sighed. "I don't know what I want. I don't know what the best thing would be for us."

"I think the best thing would be whatever makes us happy."

"It's more complicated than that." Jane paused as the flight attendant came by to collect their dinner things and refill their wine glasses. "What about you? When did you start…thinking this way, about me? When I started talking about moving?"

"It was a long time before that." Maura looked at her in surprise. "You really don't get it?"

"No, apparently not. Enlighten me."

Maura let out her breath. "I've been in love with you for years. I'm not even sure when it started. At first you were just the really attractive friend whom I loved very much, as a friend. By the time I realized I wanted it to be more, you were hung up on Casey, so I tried to just let it go. Then when you broke up with him and you were pregnant, I…found myself hoping that would be the thing that brought us together. I wasn't gonna push it, you were going through a lot, but I hoped you would see I could be there for you the way he should have been. But I was only speculating about your sexual orientation anyway, and I don't like to do that."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? And what was your speculation?"

Maura looked a little flustered. "Well, I'd wondered about it for a long time. Every time a man who should have been perfect for you showed an interest, you just wanted him to leave you alone. Then when he became unavailable, suddenly you were interested. It was like you wanted a boyfriend you didn't actually have to see."

"Which is what Casey was," Jane admitted.

"Right. After I saw you go undercover as a lesbian, and you were so good at it, I started to wonder if that was what you really wanted, but for whatever reason, you were afraid to admit it. But when I made comments about lesbianism, you never seemed any more enthusiastic about that than you were about the men I encouraged you to date. I just couldn't figure out what was going on with you, and I wasn't really sure what to do when I met Jack. You encouraged me to date him, though, which I think is the first time you've ever done that. I knew he might be my last chance at finding a decent man. So I decided you weren't into me, and I went out with him."

"But you really liked Jack."

"I did. I really did. But I didn't love him."

Jane frowned. Maura had dated Jack for several months. They had gotten serious, and Maura had seemed happy, but she supposed she never had mentioned anything about love.

"Jack was exactly what I wanted in a man," said Maura. "He was intelligent, caring, interesting. He respected me. I was attracted to him, I was fond of him, and I enjoyed being with him. I should have been head over heels in love. But I wasn't, and it bothered me. I even considered the possibility that I might be one of those women who only like bad boys."

Jane laughed. "Yeah, you did sort of have a type going there for a while."

"Obviously breaking up with him was the best choice, even though it made me sad. But then I went to the sweat lodge, and everything became clear."

"Yeah, I remember you being really enigmatic about all the 'revelations' you had at that place."

"I realized I wasn't in love with Jack because I was already in love with you, and that I was wasting my time dating anyone who wasn't you. That's why I haven't gone on a single date since then. I already knew who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and it was only a matter of finding out if you were ever going to feel the same way."

"The rest of your life?"

Maura nodded. "At the time, I just had this moment of clarity where I was certain you loved me too and that you just weren't ready to deal with it yet, and I understood that because you had so much to deal with as it was. You had so many feelings to sort through over Casey, and Frost, and your miscarriage. But I felt like once you sorted through all that, you would be ready to deal with your feelings for me." She blinked back tears. "That was how it seemed in the sweat lodge. It sounds delusional now."

"It's not delusional," said Jane, reaching for Maura's hand. Actually, it was pretty much dead on, except for the being ready to deal with her feelings part. She wasn't sure she would ever be ready to deal with her feelings for Maura.

Maura looked like she wanted to say more, but then thought better of it. Instead she just finished her wine, motioned to the dark sky outside, and said she was going to try to get some sleep. Then she hesitantly laid her head on Jane's shoulder.

"Okay, you sleep," said Jane, slipping her arm around Maura and planting a kiss on her head. Maura snuggled in closer, and soon she was breathing evenly. Jane, on the other hand, did not think sleep was coming for her. Instead she put on her headphones and flipped channels on the little TV embedded in the back of the seat in front of her. At one point the man she'd switched seats with walked by on his way to the bathroom and noticed Maura sleeping with her head on Jane's shoulder. Jane flashed him a grateful smile and whispered, "The first trimester is so tiring. Thanks again for letting me sit by her."

"No problem," he whispered back.

Jane smiled at how well Maura was inadvertently selling the pregnant girlfriend story and found herself imagining what it would be like if it were actually the truth. She'd never really dared to let herself think about it too much, always assuming Maura would never be interested in someone like her, not like that. And even if she was interested, it wasn't exactly safe. Hoyt, who was always good at identifying people's weaknesses, had seen how much she loved Maura and had nearly killed her for it. She still had nightmares about the horrible things he might have done to Maura if she hadn't intervened in time, things she couldn't even bring herself to name. And then there was Alice Sands. She had figured it out too, and now Jane was also having nightmares about the things Joe Harris might have done to Maura if things had gone according to Alice's plan. Sooner or later, someone was going to succeed. Jane had to back off eventually. She liked the think not being a cop anymore would help, but was it really enough? Alice had a grudge against her from some perceived slight all the way back at the police academy. How many others might feel the same way? Would it matter to them that she wasn't a cop anymore?

But now that she knew how Maura felt, that raised a whole new question: would denying Maura hurt her just as much?

~R&I~

It was early morning when they landed in Paris. The two women dragged their luggage onto the Metro and rode to the 8th Arrondissement, where their hotel was located. They walked through a revolving door into a marbled lobby, where Maura checked in with the concierge and got their room keys. The porter took their bags and they trekked up several flights of stairs to the suite Maura had reserved for the month. Walking in, they were greeted by a living room with a big couch, a table for four, a desk, and a clear view of the Eiffel Tower outside. Jane gave a low whistle.

"I should have known you'd have a room with an Eiffel Tower view," she said.

Maura smiled. "Well, if you're going to spend a whole month in Paris, you want to make sure you have a good view."

Jane wandered over to the table, on top of which sat fresh flowers, a bowl of fruit, and a chilled bottle of champagne. "Wow, they don't play around here. Do we get these every day?"

"Yes. It goes with the room."

Jane began snacking on the fruit while Maura set about making herself at home, setting her laptop up on the desk, taking her clothes into the bedroom to hang up. Jane thought for a moment about Maura drinking a bottle of champagne alone every night if she hadn't come with her and shuddered. She would never have let that happen to her. Would she?

She followed Maura into the bedroom. They could see the Eiffel Tower from in here as well. There was a king-sized bed, a loveseat, and a vanity. Jane had to smile at the thought of watching Maura sit at that vanity doing her hair and makeup every morning for a month.

 _I already knew who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with_. Maura's words on the plane were still haunting her. She shook her head to dislodge them, walking into the bathroom. She gave another whistle in here as she took in the enormous tub, the large shower stall, the towel warmers, and the matching bathrobes hanging from hooks. There was even a window in here, offering the same view as the others.

"We've got matching robes," she told Maura, walking back into the bedroom and flopping down on the bed.

"Well, maybe we can wear them later," said Maura without looking up from arranging her things on the vanity. Suddenly she blushed. "I mean – I don't mean–"

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to start watching what you say to me now."

Maura looked at her. "Jane, you can't be on the bed right now."

"Why not?"

"This is how jet lag happens! If you lie down, you won't want to get back up, and your entire sleep schedule will be thrown off for the entire trip."

"I just wanted to rest for a little while. I didn't sleep on the plane."

"You can sleep tonight. Not until then. It's the only way you'll adjust to this time zone. Get up, we're going shopping."

"Maura…"

"You need better clothes to wear while we're here, and as it happens, we're right in the middle of a wide variety of clothing boutiques!"

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that either."

"Right on this street, we have Armani, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Gucci…come on, I'm buying." She pulled Jane up from the bed and dragged her to the door. Jane acquiesced, knowing by now that it was easier to go just along with her. They spent the morning walking from one boutique to another, ending up loaded down with bags containing stylish clothes and accessories for both of them (not that Maura _needed_ any more). They stopped for lunch at a sidewalk café near the river.

"Can we go over by the Eiffel Tower after this?" Jane asked.

"Sure, what do you want to do over there?"

Jane looked at her like the answer was obvious. "Take our picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. _Duh_."

Maura chuckled. "So you want to be typical tourists."

"You can't come to Paris and not take your picture with the Eiffel Tower! Besides, I want to send it to my mom."

"Do you have international calling and texting on your phone?"

"Um…no, I guess not. I didn't think about it."

"You won't have phone service over here then, but I can send it to her."

"All right, just something to let her know we're both alive and having fun."

They paid for their food, gathered their bags, and set off across the nearest bridge, heading towards what Maura said was the Left Bank. Maura paused halfway across the bridge, set her bags down, and leaned over the railing, looking down at the water below, where a tour boat was going by.

"I love this city," she said softly. "I used to come here more, but I haven't been in a while. I didn't realize how much I missed it. It's so beautiful. It's like nowhere else on Earth."

Jane set her bags down too and looked around at the view, with the river and its many bridges, the very French buildings lining the banks, the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It _was_ beautiful, and it felt like a different world from home. Even the air felt different here than in Boston. It was harder to remember now why she couldn't act on her feelings for Maura. She turned her eyes back to her friend, who was smiling at her, and decided that no matter where she went in the world, Maura herself was always going to be her favorite view.

"Yeah, it's pretty," she said.

"I'm so glad I brought you with me so we could enjoy it together," Maura told her.

A strand of Maura's hair blew into her face and Jane automatically reached to move it, sweeping it tenderly out of her way. Maura looked up at her, eyes full of hope, and Jane still couldn't remember why she wasn't supposed to kiss her. So she did.

This kiss lasted longer than the one from the night before, and Maura seemed to just melt into it. Jane slowly wrapped her arms around the shorter woman, aware of people walking by but not really caring. This was what they both needed, what they came here to do. Maura's hands crept up Jane's back and tangled in her hair as one sweet kiss turned into another, and another, until all the reasons why this was a bad idea came rushing back at once and Jane pulled back, feeling dizzy.

"Maura, I –" She stepped back, worried they'd gone too far this time.

"Jane, it's okay." Maura took her hand. "I know it's hard. You've been running from these feelings for a long time. But there's nobody here to judge us, and I promise you're safe with me. I won't hurt you like other people have."

"Maura, I know you wouldn't. It's not that."

"Then what is it? Are you afraid of how other people will react?"

"I hadn't really thought about it that much. I'm more worried about _you_. It's not…it's not really safe for you, to be this close to me."

Maura frowned. "Why not? I feel safer with you than I ever have with anyone."

"But you shouldn't." Jane turned away, grabbed her shopping bags, and continued walking along the bridge, although she wasn't sure she was in the mood for an Eiffel Tower selfie anymore. "Maura, how many times have you been hurt for being close to me? How many people have tried to kill you because of _me_? Just because you were my best friend? Can you imagine how much worse it would be if you were _more_ than that?"

Maura hurried to catch up with Jane. "You're thinking of Alice Sands again."

"And Hoyt too, but the Alice Sands thing…sometimes I still don't know if it's over, you know? There are still people out there who are loyal to her. What if they want to punish me for killing her? Or what if there's another person with an old grudge I don't know about waiting in the wings? They all figure it out, that you're the person I love most. You deserve to live a life where you don't have to worry about who's going to attack you next, to torture you and punish you for being the person I love."

Maura turned down a street adjacent to the river, leading Jane with her. "So you do love me?"

"Of course I do. I've loved you for years. I always thought you were out of my league, though."

"And have you thought about the torture I have to go through every day, wanting to be with you and knowing I can't be?"

"I am familiar with the feeling, yes."

"Who are you to decide for me which would be worse?"

Jane stopped in her tracks. " _Dead_ would be worse, Maura. I think we can agree on that." She turned and started walking again.

Maura ran up beside her and slipped her hand through Jane's. "When was the first time you wanted to kiss me?"

"I don't remember for sure."

"Think. When's the earliest time you can think of?"

Jane thought, feeling Maura's fingers twine with hers. "The night Hoyt escaped from prison, when I stayed with you. You looked really gorgeous when you came to the door, and seeing you made me feel so much calmer even though I was scared, and I just wanted to kiss you."

"Okay, well remember how you told me about that game you like to play called 'what if it didn't happen?'"

"Yeah."

"Let's play another game, called 'what if it did happen?'"

"Mm, okay. So you're saying, what if I kissed you that night?"

"Yes. I think I would have liked it. I think it would have been the start of a lasting relationship. So what do you think would have happened next?"

"Well, I guess we wouldn't have had a discussion about which one of us should go out with Dean."

Maura laughed. "No, I don't think so. And I wouldn't have gone out with that guy who had Marfan's Syndrome, which might not have been good for him..."

"There are a lot of people neither of us would have gone out with."

"We would never have had that stupid fight when we were working Adam Fairfield's murder."

"Nah, we would have. But I would have been able to admit it was because I was jealous of your rich ex-boyfriend."

Maura chuckled, leaning against Jane as they walked. "Well, maybe we wouldn't have had that really huge fight after you shot Paddy, because that was Dean's fault, and you wouldn't have been involved with him. So he probably wouldn't have been there, and the whole thing would have happened differently."

"That's a good point. But you still would have been a target for Hoyt, because we would have been a couple."

"I was anyway. But you know who I wouldn't have been a target for? Dennis."

Jane shuddered. "Yeah, okay, I'll give you that."

"Or that man I met at the charity event, who was pretending to be a doctor."

"The one who was paid to drug you and make you steal evidence?"

"Yes. I would never have flirted with him if I'd been married to you."

"Married?"

"Well, if we'd gotten together the night Hoyt escaped back in 2010, I'm sure we would have been married by the time that happened in 2013. And I would never have gone to jail."

"Yeah, okay. You're right about that."

"And you wouldn't have ever gotten involved with Casey."

"No, which would have been nice for me."

"And to be quite honest, I doubt Joe Harris would have successfully kidnapped me."

"Why would you say that? If we were _married_ , they would definitely have targeted you."

"Yes, and you would have seen it coming, and you would have protected me. One of the things you beat yourself up over when I was kidnapped was that you didn't see it coming, and I didn't see it either. We thought you were being targeted by a stranger, and a stranger would have gone after your family. They wouldn't have known about your connection to me. We didn't realize Alice had eyes everywhere, or that she was perceptive enough to figure it out. Had I been your wife, we would have just assumed anyone who was after you would also be after me, and I would have been protected. I would never have gone to a crime scene alone without talking to someone first. I might have been removed from duty, just like you were."

"You _might_ have a point."

"My point is that the bad guys already know they can hurt you by hurting me, so the only way to make me safer is to stay close to me. And you'd make me happy."

"I was hoping putting some physical distance between us would make you safer."

Maura looked at her sharply. "Is that why you took the job?"

"It's part of it, yeah. I didn't want to make you sad; I just wanted to keep you safe."

"But you're always the one who defends me. Now I won't have anyone."

"Frankie will."

"Of course, but Nina is his top priority. I'm yours." Maura stopped suddenly, and Jane realized they were standing directly in front of the Eiffel Tower. She'd been so wrapped up in their conversation, she had stopped paying attention to their surroundings.

"This is what I was worried about," she said. "It's why I thought I'd hurt you either way. If I move to Quantico, you'll be hurt that we're not together. If I decide to be with you, I could get you hurt."

"There's _always_ some risk. So why don't you just do what you want to do for a change?"

"I _want_ to be with you. I do. I just—"

Maura cut her off with a brief, light kiss. "Then let's try it. At least then you won't be the one hurting me."

Jane's heart seized at that thought. "I don't want to hurt you. I've…I've loved you for years, and it _does_ hurt. It hurts more all the time. I tried backing off a little, not touching you so much, but it still hurt. That was another reason I decided to move. I thought…maybe some distance would allow me to get over you."

"Do you think it would have worked?"

"Probably not," Jane admitted quietly.

Maura squeezed Jane's hand. "I think there's only one way to make it stop hurting, for both of us."

Jane nodded. "Okay. Okay."

Maura broke into a smile. "We can at least try it for now, here in Paris where no one else has to know. We'll just see how it feels, okay?"

Jane nodded. "Okay. We'll see how it feels." And then she kissed Maura again, right there in front of the Eiffel Tower.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Maura woke up the next morning in Jane's arms, and immediately a smile spread across her face. She kissed Jane's face over and over until she began to stir, eager to start another day together; the first full day of their new relationship.

The two of them had spent the previous evening in their room, drinking the bottle of champagne and talking over the situation. Jane seemed to be feeling a little better about their experiment after talking more, but Maura decided it was best to let things develop slowly, so she hadn't pushed for sex, even though she really wanted it. They made out for a while, though, and they'd gone to sleep happily snuggled up. So far, so good.

"Mmmm," Jane groaned, cracking one eye open. "What are you waking me up for?"

"You need to get up! We have lots to do today!" Maura got out of bed, found the room service menu, and got back in bed to look through it, resting her head on Jane's chest. "I figured we could order breakfast in, then perhaps we could go on a tour of the catacombs?"

"I wanna go to the top of the Eiffel Tower."

"We can go tonight if you like, but the best time to go is after dark. If you'd like a daytime view of the city, you can't beat Notre Dame."

"You're the expert. You have to find time to write, too."

"I'll fit it in. It won't hurt to soak up the city for a few days first." Maura sat up and stretched while Jane looked at the room service menu, then called to place their order from the hotel phone. After that she picked up her cell phone and turned the ringer back on. "That's weird," she said. "I have three missed calls from a number I don't recognize."

"What's the area code?"

"571, which would be…northern Virginia. I don't see why the FBI would be calling me."

"Maybe it's related to a case you've worked on."

"Maybe, but they didn't leave a voicemail."

"Wrong number then," reasoned Jane.

Breakfast arrived and they sat down to eat at the table. Outside it was cloudy, but the view from their windows was still spectacular. Nonetheless, Maura found her eyes drawn to Jane instead.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Jane asked.

"Because I'm so happy that you're here!" Maura grinned. "Look at us! We're eating breakfast in Paris together!"

"Yes, we sure are," chuckled Jane. "It is a little surreal."

"I think it's perfect." She motioned to the windows. "A nice view of the City of Love out there, and the woman I love in here. It's like a dream come true!"

Jane smiled. "I'm glad it's making you so happy. That was the plan."

"Would you still have come if you'd known what would happen?"

"I'd like to think so. I did have some inkling, from one of the things Kent said."

"What did he say?"

"I don't remember exactly. Something about how I can't face my feelings and I end up punishing the people who love me most, and that you deserved better. He was being a mysterious prick as usual. I couldn't get him to be more specific."

Maura smiled. "Maybe so, but if it got you to come to Paris with me, then I'm for it."

Maura heard her phone ringing in the bedroom and went back for it. Seeing the 571 area code again, she answered with a hesitant, "This is Dr. Isles."

"Maura?" said a man's voice she didn't immediately recognize. "This is Agent Davies. Is Jane with you?"

"Yes," admitted Maura, feeling as though a weight had dropped into her stomach.

"Could I talk to her? I haven't been able to get through on her phone."

"She doesn't have international calling," said Maura, walking back to the living room. "It's Agent Davies!" she whispered to Jane. "He wants to talk to you!"

Jane looked stunned, but she held out her hand for the phone, so Maura handed it over and went back to the bedroom to give her some privacy. She found herself pacing around, worrying that this would ruin everything. This was one thing they hadn't discussed: if Jane loved Maura, why had she gone out with Agent Davies? Maura could think of a few possible reasons, but one of them was that she genuinely liked him, maybe even found him more attractive than Maura. She would have to accept that, if Jane still wanted to give him a chance.

"Hey," said Jane, coming into the bedroom. "Why did you come in here?"

"Oh, I wanted to let you have some privacy, so you could talk to Agent Davies."

"It's not like we had anything private to talk about." Jane handed Maura's phone back. "He was surprised when he heard I'd gone overseas and that I wasn't coming to Quantico as soon as planned. He wanted to find out what was going on."

"You didn't tell him?"

"I didn't have time to tell everyone. I just called my immediate supervisor to make sure it was okay, and that was it. After that I had to get a ticket, and then pack my suitcase, and go to that party, and since then I've been with you. I didn't have time to chat with Davies."

Maura relaxed a little. He couldn't be that important if she didn't even tell him she was leaving the country. "Was he upset that you didn't tell him?"

"Mostly surprised, I think." Jane frowned a little. "Perhaps he was under the impression things were more serious than they were."

"Does that…change anything for you? Know that he wants to be serious?"

Jane looked up. "No! Don't be ridiculous. It doesn't change anything. He was just…a distraction. I wanted to start over, and he made it easier. We would never have lasted."

"And now?"

Jane smiled. "Well, there's more than one way to start over." She took Maura's face in her hands, tilted her head back, and kissed her. Maura immediately melted, feeling the blood race faster through her veins as her heart rate sped up. The feeling of exhilaration lingered after Jane broke the kiss, saying, "Come finish your breakfast."

They both went back to the table. "So being with me is a way to start over," said Maura.

"Most definitely."

"And what will that mean for Quantico?"

"If we decide to stay together, I'm not going to run off and leave you. I'll have to figure something else out."

"If it's important to you, I'd consider coming with you."

"You would do that for me?"

"We'd have to talk it over and decide what would be the best decision for both of us. But that's what couples do."

"To be honest, FBI wouldn't be my first choice. It was just the opportunity I had presented to me."

"I'm sure you could find something you'd like better if you looked. Maybe you need to do some soul-searching and decide where you really want to go next in life."

"That's an awful lot of soul-searching all at once," said Jane, and Maura knew she was referring to their test relationship as well.

"You're right," agreed Maura. "One thing at a time. Can we agree that, given our history and how well we know each other, we can skip most of the dating game? I would say that by the end of this month, we should know whether we're better off as friends or ready for a lifetime commitment."

"Yeah, fair enough."

"So we'll focus on us first. If we're not working out by the end of the trip, you go to Quantico as planned. If we decide to stay together, you back out of Quantico, move in with me, and I will gladly support you while you figure out your next career move."

"Maura," said Jane with an expression of mock surprise, "you want me to become a kept woman?"

Maura laughed. "I promise I'll take good care of you."

~R&I~

Nightfall found the two women waiting in line outside a glittering, golden Eiffel Tower. It was crowded, as always, and yet somehow Maura felt like she and Jane were the only people there. She didn't mind the wait as long as she got to hold Jane's hand, and even Jane was complaining less than usual. Nearby were men selling little models of the tower, their wares displayed on blankets on the ground as they called out, "Eiffels! Eiffels!" to passersby.

"I want an Eiffel," said Jane. "I like the big gold ones. They look like how it looks when it's lit up. Like now."

Maura smiled at her fondly. "I'll buy you one when we get back down."

"Is that the kind of girlfriend you're going to be? The kind that buys me pretty things?"

"Yes." Maura kissed her. "But you already know I'd do anything for you."

"Likewise," said Jane softly.

"And who knows if Agent Davies would."

Jane laughed. "You're _not_ in competition with him! I just can't believe he called your phone."

"I can't believe you gave him my number!"

Jane frowned. "I didn't."

"Well, I didn't!"

"That's weird. How did he get your number then?"

"Well I suppose he does work for the FBI, but it would seem like an abuse of his power to track down my number just so he could talk to you."

Jane looked somewhat troubled, but then they found themselves at the front of the line and turned their attention to buying tickets.

"You're right, the best time to come up here is at night," said Jane when they were finally at the top, looking out the windows at the beautifully lit up landmarks below. "The streets look like gold rivers."

"They do," agreed Maura. "Come on, let's go upstairs."

"I thought this was the top."

"We're going to the top of the top! Come on!" She took Jane's hand and led her up the stairs to the open-air level on the very top. They were fewer people up here, and it was just more peaceful.

"I guess you can see better without the smudged glass," remarked Jane. "Although we're basically in a cage."

"Well, that's necessary for public safety!" Maura peered out at the glittering city below, then turned back to her Jane. "Somehow, the view is twice as beautiful with you here."

Jane smiled modestly, her dimples appearing. "Well, I try."

"I really love you," Maura said quietly.

Jane smiled down at her. "I really love you too."

And then they kissed at the very top of Paris, with the whole city shining beneath them.

~R&I~

They got back to the hotel late that night, Jane proudly carrying a shiny golden model of the Eiffel Tower. She put it on the dresser in the bedroom and then stepped back to admire it.

"I don't think I'll ever look at the Eiffel Tower the same way," Maura said happily. "Now I'll always think of the way we kissed in front of it, and at the top."

"We should have made out in the elevators too, for good measure."

"That might have made some people uncomfortable," laughed Maura.

"They can deal with it. I'm with the hottest woman alive. What do they expect?"

"Yeah really think so?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, obviously. You're sexy as hell."

"I happen to think _you're_ the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"Me? But, I'm not even pretty."

"You still don't see it?" Maura gently moved Jane's hair out of her face. "You are _so_ gorgeous. I've always thought so. You're absolutely breathtaking." She captured Jane's lips and felt electricity surging through her body, stronger than ever now. She _needed_ this woman. "Jane," she said softly. "Please let me show you."

Jane nodded, as if she were expecting this. "I don't know if I'll be, you know, good."

"Just let me…" Maura's lips trailed down Jane's long neck, nibbling at her jugular. "I'll make you feel good. I promise." She guided Jane back towards the bed, nudging her to lie down. Then she pulled off her own sundress and got into bed wearing just her bra and panties. "You are just so beautiful," she murmured, quickly ridding Jane of her jeans and t-shirt, wanting to feel Jane's skin against hers. "I've always admired your body. You're just so toned, athletic but still feminine." Her hands moved up Jane's body, feeling her muscles tense. "You turn me on more than anyone ever has." She finally lowered her body onto Jane's, feeling the softness of Jane's breasts against her own, the smoothness of Jane's skin on stomach and legs against her own bare flesh. Every cell in her body seemed to be humming.

"Really?" asked Jane in disbelief. "More than anyone?"

"Very much so." Her hips seemed to thrust forward involuntarily, her heat pressing against Jane's, and she gasped at the instant, electric thrill this produced. Jane thrust back, uncertainly at first, and Maura responded in kind until they had built up a sort of rhythm. She covered Jane's face in kisses before sliding her tongue down Jane's neck and along a beautiful collarbone to the hollow of her throat. "I've never wanted anyone so much, for so long," she murmured. Her hands moved onto Jane's breasts, teasing her nipples through the smooth material of her bra (nylon, she expected; she wondered if Jane would let her buy her a silk bra?). She could feel Jane's nipples harden and longed to taste them, but she was determined to take it slow, and anyway, Jane was just starting to get up the courage to touch Maura's breasts the same way, and she certainly didn't want to interrupt her.

Jane touched her tentatively, gaining more confidence as she began to trace the lace pattern of Maura's bra. "I've kind of always liked your tits," she muttered.

"Really? I have noticed you looking before, but you never said anything."

"Neither did you. Can I…" Her hands moved around to the back of Maura's bra.

"Yes, of course!" said Maura, delighted that Jane was asking. Jane unfastened the bra and slid it down Maura's arms, carefully setting it aside, not taking her eyes for a second off of Maura's newly liberated breasts. "This means I get to take yours off too," said Maura, reaching under Jane. The brunette obediently arched her back to make it easier for Maura to unfasten and remove her bra, leaving them both in nothing but panties. Maura immediately set to work, licking and sucking her way all over the two newly exposed mounds.

"Maura," Jane said, the name coming out as more of a moan, "I wanna do that to you."

"Of course." Maura rolled over, offering herself up to Jane, who reverently caressed her breasts.

"They're so much bigger than mine," she said softly.

"Yours are perfect," Maura promised her.

"But these…these are fucking amazing."

"Well, I'm glad you like them," Maura said brightly as Jane tentatively began to suck. Maura closed her eyes and ran her fingers through Jane's curls, feeling herself becoming wetter. "Jane," she moaned. "I need you…please…"

"Okay. I hope I can do this." Jane carefully hooked her thumbs over the waistband of Maura's panties and slid them down, casting them aside. She appeared at a loss as to what to do next, although her eyes were glued on the area where Maura needed her.

"You can," Maura promised. "Give me your hand." She took Jane's hand in both of hers and guided it to her center. She arranged Jane's fingers carefully so that two were poised to enter her and her thumb was on Maura's clit. "Like that," she whispered.

She gasped in pleasure as Jane entered, thumb lightly stroking her clit.

"Damn, you're soaked," Jane breathed, slowly moving her fingers out and back in.

"Of course I am. I'm with you. Go deeper." Jane did, and Maura moaned, thrusting her hips upward. "Oh Jane, I can't believe we're finally doing this. _Deeper_."

"Me neither," Jane replied, obeying Maura's command. Her voice was even lower and raspier than usual, and Maura nearly came just from hearing it.

"Jane, do it harder…faster…yes! Like that! Oh Jane! _Jaaaaane!_ "

Maura grabbed fistfuls of the blanket, writhing as she came hard with Jane deep inside her, pressing on her clit. When she finally relaxed, panting, she opened her eyes to see Jane staring at her in awe.

"That was fucking amazing," Jane rasped.

"It was," Maura agreed. "Now I need to make you feel just as good." She nudged Jane onto her back and quickly rid her of the last article of clothing they had between them. "Jane," she whispered, "I want to taste you."

"Okay," said Jane, her voice barely audible. "You can…you can do whatever you want. It's fine with me."

Maura smiled and got to work, starting by kissing her way across and down Jane's incredible abs, finally admiring them up close as she'd wanted to do for years. She eventually made her way down to Jane's heat, moving her tongue all around in a figure eight pattern before taking her into her mouth. Jane let out a low moan. "Oh that's, that's good," she said.

Smiling against her, Maura tapped out a light rhythm with her tongue for a moment before licking hard. Jane let out a much louder moan, and Maura realized tasting her wasn't enough. She needed to be inside, to experience everything she could, to make up for years of longing. So she went in, thrusting hard and fast with her fingers while continuing to lick, until she felt Jane close up around her fingers as she arched her back, loudly crying out her orgasm.

As Jane lay on her back panting, Maura curled up beside her, throwing one arm and one leg over her lover and laying her head on Jane's shoulder. She planted a tender kiss on Jane's cheek.

"Is it too clichéd to say that's the best sex I've ever had?" Jane asked, still out of breath.

"Not if it's the truth."

"Oh, it is." Jane began to stroke Maura's hair.

"I'm glad I was able to satisfy you. Although, I've never gotten a bad report from anyone."

"I bet you haven't." Jane kissed her head. "I think you've ruined me for anyone else now. I've been doing it wrong all these years."

"Well, I'm more than happy to please you whenever you want, for as long as you want."

"So we can do this every day?"

"I'd love to."

"What's on the itinerary tomorrow?"

"I haven't had a chance to fully redo the itinerary."

"My weather app said it might rain. I vote we stay in."

"I brought an umbrella. We can still go out in the rain."

" _Maura_."

"Oh." Maura broke into a grin, finally catching up to what Jane was implying. "You know what? You're right. Tomorrow we should stay in."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Jane sorted through the hotel-provided bath products, all luxury items made right there in France, as the bathtub filled. There were salts, bubbles, and some sort of fizzy thing. _What the hell,_ she thought. _I'll just put them all in._ She dumped each item in, one by one, and watched as the hot water fizzed and bubbled, which she supposed was the kind of thing Maura liked. The mirror over the bathtub reflected the window in the opposite wall, giving them two views of the glittering Eiffel Tower outside. Jane pulled the curtains closed most of the way, but left a little sliver so they could still glimpse the Tower. She was going to miss this view.

They were almost halfway through their time in Paris, and a month was starting to seem like not enough time. Jane had yet to feel homesick, though she did Skype with her mom every few days. Instead, she was very much enjoying being in a little bubble with Maura. The sudden shift in their relationship had turned her world upside down. Maura was, as Jane might have expected, an absolute goddess in the bedroom. Jane loved every little thing about her glorious body, and she made Jane feel things she hadn't even realized were possible. At first she'd tried to hang onto every detail from each sexual experience so she could replay them in her mind, but after nearly two weeks, they'd done it too many times for her to keep track. One thing she knew was that she was never going back. The whole experience had just confirmed what she always knew, deep inside: Maura was her soul mate. The only logical thing for them to do now was to spend their lives together, which meant she had some serious decisions to make.

Maura padded into the bathroom, wearing only her matching hotel bathrobe and slippers, just like Jane had on. In her hands were a bottle of champagne and two glasses. She set the glasses down on the tiled ledge on the side of the bathtub and filled them up.

"It feels like we're on our honeymoon, and we're not even married yet," Jane remarked as Maura slipped off her bathrobe, revealing a perfectly sculpted body, and climbed into the tub.

"Yet?" said Maura with a little raise of her eyebrows, picking up her champagne glass.

Jane shrugged off her own robe and joined her in the tub, facing her, fully aware of Maura's eyes moving up and down her form. She reached for her own champagne. "Well, I certainly got the impression that was where you expected this to head, what with your calculations of how long we would have been married by now if we'd gotten together any of the times we each thought about it."

Maura smiled. "I suppose it's hard for me to picture a relationship with you ending. I can't imagine wanting it to end. All I've ever wanted since I've met you is to be with you as much as possible. I don't think pledging my life to you would be that difficult."

Jane smiled sadly. "I wish I'd known you were thinking about that all this time. I thought I was doing the right thing by just trying to be your friend, but I was hurting you."

"Jane, you could never hurt me. You've always made me happy."

"And sad."

"More happy than sad. And look at me now! Now I'm happier than ever, because of you!"

Except for one thing, Jane thought. Maura was still wondering if this situation would be permanent. Jane couldn't leave it to the end of the month to tell her the answer to that.

"Come here," said Jane, reaching out her arms. Maura turned her body around and scooted back so she was between Jane's legs, leaning back against her. Jane wrapped her free arm around the naked body of her girlfriend (it still felt weird to call her that, but it was undeniably what she was). "I almost wish we could stay here forever," she said, planning a kiss on the side of Maura's head.

"Me too. But things don't have to be so different, when we go back home."

"I know, and I hope they won't be, but we'll have Ma and everyone to deal with. It'll be interesting to see how they all react when we tell them about us."

Maura looked up. "Do you want to tell them right away?"

"Well, we can cross that bridge when we get to it, but I don't see any reason to wait, once we get back. We won't be able to hide it long anyway. But for now, we can just keep it to ourselves." She sipped her champagne, her other hand wandering up to play with Maura's breast.

"Mmm." Maura leaned her head back. "I love that this has turned into a romantic vacation, but I've got to work more on my book tomorrow. I'm falling behind!"

Jane smiled. Maura's original itinerary had involved a balance of writing and sightseeing, which had been thrown off when the activity of "lovemaking" had been thrown into the mix. Today they had planned to get out, but it had never quite happened. In fact, they'd never even managed to get dressed. Every time they started to get ready to go out, they'd gotten carried away and ended up in bed again. Maura got a little writing done when inspiration suddenly struck her after lunch, but she was still wearing just her robe, and it had fallen open partway as she earnestly typed on her computer, revealing the swell of her breast. Jane had been unable to control herself. They ended up fucking on the couch.

"Well, I can't make any promises, but if you wear clothes while you're writing, I _might_ be able to keep my hands off you." Jane set down her empty champagne glass and reached for Maura's swollen pussy, lightly stroking her clit with two fingers. Maura whimpered, closing her eyes. Jane was getting good at this. Her absolute favorite thing was when she was inside of her, immersed in her wetness, Maura's hips thrusting so hard that she wasn't sure if she was fucking her or if Maura was just devouring her fingers with her pussy. Either way, Jane loved it. She wanted to do it every day forever. She couldn't believe she'd passed up the opportunity all these years, although she supposed it would have helped if she'd known the opportunity was there. There was no point in dwelling on that, though. She could only move forwards.

"Of course, we'll also make time for this," said Maura, reaching her hand up to tangle in Jane's hair.

"We'd better. So, first thing in the morning, I'm calling my supervisor at the FBI Academy and telling them they'll need to find a new instructor."

Maura's eyes flew open. "Really? You're certain of that already?"

"Well, yeah." Jane stopped stroking Maura's clit, although she didn't let go of her breast. "I have no intentions of going anyplace where we can't do _this_ whenever we want. I don't know what my next career move will be, but it's not that."

"So you're moving in with me?"

"If you'll have me. I don't relish the idea of living with my mom, but I want to be with you."

"Jane, I'd _love_ you have you! That way you won't have to worry about living expenses while you decide what to do next."

"So I _will_ be a kept woman!"

Maura laughed. "I'm sure you'll find ways to earn your keep!"

"Yeah, I can always pay you in sexual favors." Jane resumed her stroking until Maura's back arched in orgasm.

~R&I~

After breakfast the following morning, Jane called her immediate supervisor in Quantico to explain apologetically that she didn't think the instructor position was right for her after all.

"All right, I'm going to go out for a bit and let you write," Jane said when she hung up. Maura was already hard at work at her desk.

"I can write with you here!"

"I know, but I want to go check out a few things nearby."

"Okay, just don't get lost. Take my phone with you. I don't like the thought of you being without one when you're out by yourself."

"You're starting to sound as paranoid as me." Jane took the phone and kissed Maura goodbye. "I'll see you in a few hours."

She headed downstairs and stopped at the front desk to talk to the concierge, her heart suddenly pounding in her throat.

"So, let's say I wanted to propose to my girlfriend while I'm here," she said.

"Ah, ready to settle down with that pretty blonde, are you?" he replied.

"Yeah, I think so. So where would I be able to find a ring?"

"There are several jewelry stores right here in the neighborhood. I can give you a map." He pulled out a map that showed the nearby shopping and circled the jewelry stores.

"Great, thanks." Jane frowned, trying to remember what Maura had said before about how she'd want to be proposed to. There was something she said the night Korsak proposed to Kiki, something about a proposal deserving champagne and…a string quartet? _Oh, Maura_. "So if I wanted to hire a string quartet to…I know this sounds cheesy, but to play while I proposed…"

"There is a string quartet that plays every week in our courtyard restaurant. I can give you their card." He easily produced a business card from under the desk. _Damn, he has the answer to everything,_ Jane thought.

"Okay, so would you happen to know of a good spot to propose? I thought about the Eiffel Tower, but that seems so clichéd, and it's so crowded."

"You need something romantic, but relatively private, no?"

"Exactly."

"I know the perfect spot," he said, pulling out another map.

~R&I~

One lengthy explanation later, Jane practically had the proposal all planned out and was browsing jewelry shops, trying to find the perfect ring. The problem was that most of the rings looked so _ordinary,_ which didn't seem good enough for Maura, and the styles tended to jump straight from ordinary to gaudy with no in between. She was beginning to think about proposing without a ring and letting Maura pick her own back home when she finally saw the perfect one.

It was gold, with delicate little flower petals covered in tiny diamonds, a larger diamond in the center. It was pretty and unique without being over-the-top, just like Maura.

"Could I see this one?" Jane asked the jeweler. As the woman removed the ring from the case, Jane suddenly remember Maura's unimpressed reaction to her engagement ring from Casey. _"Why would I squeal over a colorless, crystalline form of pure carbon?"_ she had said. Of course, her reaction might have had more to do with her disappointment that Jane was marrying Casey than any dislike of diamonds. She wore diamond jewelry all the time, didn't she? Still, she might prefer something with a splash of color.

"Would it be possible to replace the bigger diamond with a different jewel?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course. What would you like?"

"Purple's her favorite color. Do you have any of those purple stones?"

"We have amethyst, and we have purple sapphires. I can show you our loose stones."

Jane looked at the stones, but it became painfully obvious to her that she knew nothing about jewelry. She told the jeweler this, and the woman gently explained to her that sapphires were better than amethysts, and she could find her the perfect cut to go in the ring. When she picked out the stone, it looked good to Jane, and the jeweler promised Maura would love it too.

"Do you know her ring size?" she asked.

"Uh, no," Jane admitted.

"You want this to be a surprise?"

Jane nodded.

"You will have to measure her then." She pulled out a little plastic thing that looked like a cross between a ring and a ruler. "You just put this on her finger – has to be the correct one, or the measurement will be wrong. Even the same finger on the other hand will be different size." She placed the sizer on Jane's left ring finger. "You tighten it like this," she pulled the tab so the sizer was snug on Jane's finger, but not tight, "and then you can see her size right here. You have to make sure it is pulled just so, not too tight, not too loose."

"Okay, but won't she figure out what I'm up to when I come at her with this?"

"It is easy. You just do it while she's asleep."

Jane grinned. "Okay. I can do that." She pocketed the ring sizer. "So you have to resize it and replace the stone. How long will that take? We're only in Paris for another two and a half weeks."

"Since we already have the ring, we can get it done in two weeks. We do everything here, we do not send rings away. If you get me her ring size tomorrow morning, we will have it ready for you in time."

"Okay, I'll make sure I get it tonight." Jane felt like a weight had been lifted, until she saw how much the ring was going to cost. But Maura deserved a good ring, and Jane had a decent amount saved up with no particular purpose in mind, so she sucked it up and paid the deposit. Then she went outside and called the number for the string quartet, telling them when and where she wanted to propose, and got them scheduled to show up for a short gig (although she had to agree to pay them for a longer gig, and in cash…this was turning into a very expensive operation, but she supposed she'd never have to worry about money again if she married Maura). With all that taken care of, she wandered off in search of a chocolate shop (they had them all over the place here) to see if she could find Maura a special treat.

She certainly hoped she was doing the right thing by proposing to Maura. She was relatively certain Maura would say yes, would be absolutely delighted, in fact. And she knew they'd be happy together. There was really no doubt about that, and it seemed like the logical next step. They'd been in love, albeit secretly, for seven years. Now that they finally had that out in the open, the only thing that made sense was to settle down and begin their life together. They didn't need a period of courtship; they'd essentially had seven years of that already. But Jane kept running through certain images in her mind: Maura lying still, stunned and helpless, while Hoyt cut her with a scalpel. Maura crouching, terrified, in a dark, abandoned tunnel, hands cuffed, a sharp piece of metal clutched in her hands. Maura telling her as bravely as she could that she'd had some bleeding on her brain and was now suffering cognitive impairment. None of these things would have happened if she hadn't been close to Jane.

But she supposed Maura was right that the opposite also happened. She thought of the time she'd walked into the morgue to see old Detective Leahy with a gun to Maura's head. They'd worked together to take him down, but Maura probably couldn't have done it alone, so she likely would have died if Jane hadn't been there, and it _wasn't_ Jane's fault he wanted to kill her. Then there was the man who killed Maura's brother, who likely would have ended up killing her too if Paddy hadn't killed him first. Paddy was only able to do that because Jane saw to it that he got the right information in time. She also maybe deserved credit for keeping Maura alive when they went out to that yoga farm with the fracking. If Jane hadn't been with her, she probably wouldn't have been able to get away when they shot at her, and she certainly would have lost her leg. And when Dennis Rockmond tried to kill her, Jane was the one who figured out he was the serial killer they were looking for and tracked him down before he could hurt her, then talked him into letting her go before he killed himself. And not so long ago a man had tried to shoot Maura to death, for reasons that could in no way be blamed on Jane, but Jane had snuck up on him and put a gun to his head before he could. So she _supposed_ she'd saved her from outside danger more times than she'd put her into danger.

Nevertheless, she knew the proposal would make Maura happy, and certainly quality of life mattered as well. So that meant it was the right thing to do, right?

Maura's phone started ringing in her pocket. She took it out and saw the words _Agent Davies_ on the screen. Maura must have added him as a contact once she found out who the number belonged to. Jane was still pissed at him for looking up Maura's number, and anger bloomed in her chest when she saw him calling now.

"Why do you keep calling Maura's phone?" she hissed through gritted teeth as she answered.

"Hello to you too. Your phone isn't working right now. I don't know how else to contact you."

"Why do you _need_ to contact me?"

"Apparently you're no longer calling me. What's this about you backing out of the instructor position?"

"I realized it was a mistake. I'm staying in Boston."

"What made you change your mind? I thought your life needed a new direction."

"It does, just not…that direction."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She sighed. "What it means is really none of your business, to be honest. Thank you for everything you did, but—"

"What about us, Jane? I thought we had something."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't meant to be."

"How can you be sure about that without even giving me a chance?"

"I did give you a chance. What we were doing was me giving you a chance."

"You didn't seem let down at the time."

"It wasn't anything you did, it was just that…I realized I belonged with someone else."

There was dead silence.

"So anyway, I'm sorry it couldn't work out, but what I'm doing now is what I need to do."

"It's not…it's not _her,_ is it?"

"Does it matter who it is? Look, I'm trying to let you down gently. Nothing else is going to happen between us, and I'm not coming to Quantico. Please stop calling this number."

"I won't…Jane, I thought that…"

"Oh, sorry, losing my connection, bye!" Jane hung up and shook her head in disbelief. If he tried to call again, she decided, she was going to block his number from Maura's phone.

But she had better things to worry about right now. Finally coming across a chocolate shop, she went in and bought a box of chocolates to share with the woman she hoped to marry and headed back to the hotel.


	5. Chapter 5

**To properly enjoy this chapter, I highly recommend looking up pictures of the places I mention if you aren't familiar with them so you can really picture it! You can also find any of the songs that are mentioned being played by string quartets on YouTube :)**

Chapter Five

It was lovely weather out, so Maura was working on the balcony, although she didn't have too much left to do. She was mostly just putting finishing touches on the book, making sure everything was cohesive. It was their final week in Paris, and she had long since figured out what she needed to make the characters come alive: they just needed love. The case in the book involved a man who died when someone drove a stiletto (the shoe, not the knife) through his temple. It was being solved by a strong and intelligent female detective, who wasn't entirely like Jane but certainly borrowed some traits from her. But of course, someone needed to explain the science of the case, so there was also a strong, intelligent female medical examiner. What if, she thought, the two of them fell in love? And so she had tried it, keeping the romance simply as a side note to the case, and it worked. That was what brought the characters to life. She hoped her editor would agree.

"Hey." Jane stuck her head through the door. "You about ready to wrap things up for now? I've got a special lunch date to take you on."

"But it's not time for lunch yet!"

"It will be by the time we get there."

"Oh, where are we going?"

Jane grinned. "It's a surprise!"

Maura saved her work and closed her laptop. "Can I have a hint?"

"Nope. I'm just going to say that while you have planned most of the dates we've been on, this one I have planned will be the most romantic of them all."

Maura folded her arms. "You're trying to outdo me? I've planned some very romantic dates!"

"Yes you have, and I've loved every one, but I absolutely promise you'll love this one the best."

Maura grinned, picking up her computer and bringing it inside. "We will see!"

"Yes, we will. Wear something nice, but comfortable. We're going to be walking a lot when we get there."

Maura excitedly hurried to the bedroom, picking out a nice sundress and a pair of pretty flats. She ran a brush through her hair, put on her makeup and a sunhat, and rejoined Jane, who she noticed was wearing a nice blouse and slacks. Jane led her down to the hotel lobby, where one of the chauffeurs who worked for the hotel was waiting for them. "Right this way," he told them, leading them to a limousine parked on the street. Maura turned to Jane excitedly, and then she froze.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked her.

"I saw…I thought I saw…Agent Davies. Just down the block." She looked around, but whoever she had seen had disappeared into the throng of shoppers and tourists.

Jane squinted through the crowds as well. "I don't see him. Are you sure it was him?"

Maura shook her head and climbed into the limo, Jane following closely behind. "It couldn't have been, could it? What would he be doing here?"

"That's a good question. He hasn't called you again, has he?"

"No."

"Good. I told him to leave you alone, to leave both of us alone."

"The picnic you ordered is in the back," the driver told Jane. "Everything you need should be there."

"Thank you," said Jane, slipping an arm around Maura as he closed their door and got into the driver's seat.

"A picnic!" said Maura, snuggling closer to Jane.

"Yep. Told you I had the most romantic date ever planned. You don't even know the half of it yet."

Maura smiled, but her mind drifted back to Agent Davies. "You don't think he's…"

"Going to cause trouble? Not if he's smart."

Maura smiled, putting her head down on Jane. "I must have just seen someone who looked like him."

They began driving a route close to the river, and Maura tried to guess where they would eat their picnic.

"Are we going to the Tuileries?"

"Nope. You already took me there."

"So it's someplace we haven't been yet?"

"Yep."

"The Jardin des Plantes?"

"Nope."

The limo just kept going, still driving along the Seine. "The Parc de Bercy?" Maura suggested.

"I don't even know what that is," answered Jane.

And then, suddenly, Maura knew. "Bois de Vincennes!" she exclaimed excitedly as they pulled into the enormous park.

"Exactly. We have reached our destination," said Jane, grabbing the picnic basket as the driver opened the door for them, letting them out next to Lac Daumesnil.

"Oh, I love it here!" said Maura. "Shall we look for a picnic spot?"

"I already have a spot picked out. Right this way," said Jane, heading for the boat rental kiosk.

"Jane, are you…are you going to rent a rowboat?"

"I am."

"But you hate boats!"

Jane kissed her cheek. "Not as much as I love you." She stepped up to the kiosk and rented a boat for two hours, then helped Maura into one of the docked boats and climbed in after her, setting the picnic basket in the middle.

"If you're trying to impress me, it's working," Maura informed her.

"Good." Jane flashed a smile as she began rowing. "I told you this would be the most romantic date yet. And there are more surprises yet to come."

Maura looked around happily at the lovely view of the beautiful park and the lake with its two islands in the middle. "We could take turns rowing."

"Nope, this is all for you. I'll be the only one with tired arms today. You can row next time."

Maura grinned at the thought that they might come back here someday. "But you hate rowing."

"I'm trying to sweep you off your feet, okay?"

"You're doing a good job," said Maura.

Jane chuckled. "You know what this reminds me of?"

"That time when we rowed out on a lake so I could see what was going on with the bass caught by our murder victim?"

"Okay, but do you know what _that_ reminded me of?"

"What?"

"That scene in _The Little Mermaid_ when Ariel and the prince were rowing in a boat like this and all the little sea creatures were singing 'Kiss the Girl.'"

"I don't think I've seen that movie."

"I'll show it to you when we get home. It was really funny, they were like, 'you don't know why, but you're dying to try, you wanna kiss the girl.'"

"Do you?"

"Always, but you know that. Now ask the other question you're thinking."

"Did you then?"

"Absolutely. And you'd better believe I was thinking about it, even while I was complaining about rowing."

"It wasn't that important to keep from scaring the fish," Maura blurted out. "I mean, I didn't _lie_ , but we could have taken a motor boat if you'd really wanted to. I wanted the rowboat because it felt romantic. I knew we weren't on a date, but I still wanted to do something that felt romantic. I would have loved it if you'd kissed me."

Jane smiled sadly. "Well, no more of that," she said. "Today I'm going to kiss you in a fucking rowboat just like Prince Eric should have done to Ariel, so get over here."

Maura happily leaned over the picnic basket so Jane could kiss her.

"That one's for today," said Jane softly before kissing her again. "And that one's for that day back home, when I should have kissed you."

"Maybe we can go back there sometime," suggested Maura. "Maybe we can go back to all the places where we should have kissed, and do it."

"Maybe we will," said Jane.

It took about 20 minutes for them to get to the other side of the lake, bringing them to the east side of the Île de Reuilly, where they could plainly see the Temple Romantique sitting at the edge of the island, on top of the man-made grotto.

"Oh Jane," said Maura when she noticed Jane was rowing for the grotto. "I _love_ this spot."

"I thought you would. Have you been here before?"

"Yes, but not on a date."

"So you've never made out with anyone in the Temple of Love."

Maura laughed. "Not yet."

"Well, you will today!" Jane hopped out of the boat and tied it to a rock before helping Maura out with the picnic basket. Maura wandered into the grotto, looking around and enjoying the way the rocky arches framed her view of the lake. She turned to see Jane watching her with a smile and threw her arms around Jane's neck, kissing her soundly. "You're right. This is the most romantic date yet."

"You haven't even seen all my surprises yet! Come on, let's go up to the temple."

They climbed a curving, rocky staircase to the spot where the little round temple sat, giving them an even better view of the lake. While there had been a handful of people wandering the grotto below, up here there were just four people standing outside the temple, and they appeared to be setting up stringed instruments.

"Is that…" Maura frowned, turning to Jane. "Is that the string quartet that plays at the hotel? In the courtyard?"

"Hmm, I think it just might be. What are the odds we'd run into them here?"

Maura smiled knowingly at Jane as the musicians sat down in folding chairs and began to play Pachelbel's Canon. Meanwhile, Jane opened the picnic basket and spread out a blanket on the stone floor of the temple, then began setting up their food. The picnic had everything: a bottle of champagne, a sliced baguette, an assortment of cheeses, summer sausage, salad, fruits, bottled water, and macarons for dessert. Maura sat down and began to eat with Jane, enjoying the setting and the songs, both new and old, played by the quartet. She couldn't believe how much trouble Jane had gone to for this date. She must have wanted their last few days in Paris to be memorable! As if Maura could ever forget one second of this trip.

Maura was eating her macaron when the quartet began to play a song she particularly liked: "All I Ask of You," from _The Phantom of the Opera._ "Jane!" she remarked. "I love this song!"

"I know, that's why I asked them to play it!"

Maura sighed happily, pouring the last of the champagne into their glasses. It was a sweet song, but it actually made her a little sad as she thought of the lyrics. _Anywhere you go, let me go too. Love me, that's all I ask of you_. Sometimes she felt more like the Phantom in that play, loving a beautiful woman but accepting that she had to let her be with someone else who would make her far happier. Not that she would ever kidnap Jane and try to make her live underground, of course, although she certainly had encouraged her to spend a lot of time in the morgue with her. But her time as the Phantom was over for good now, she hoped. Now she was finally part of the love story. She looked up to see Jane smiling at her fondly.

"Hey," said Jane, "why don't you sit on the bench so I can take your picture?"

"Okay," said Maura, picking up her champagne glass and moving to the round stone bench in the middle of the temple. She smiled brightly while Jane snapped her picture, then sipped her champagne as Jane put her phone away and seemed to fumble with something in her pocket for a moment. Then suddenly she was down on one knee, holding up a small velvet box which she had opened to reveal a glittering ring. Maura gasped.

"Maura Isles," Jane began nervously. "I know that we haven't been an official couple for very long, but I've been in love with you for seven years and I don't think I'm ever going to stop. So I just thought, if you felt the same way, maybe we could stop wasting time and make things _really_ official. So, will you marry me?"

Maura could feel a single tear sliding down her cheek. "Yes," she whispered, then, worrying Jane hadn't heard her, said a little louder, "Yes, of course. Of course I will!"

Jane smile in relief. "Well then, I'd better put this on your finger." She took the ring out of the box, and Maura extended her left hand, although they were both trembling with excitement, so it took longer than it should have for Jane to get the ring on Maura's finger. It fit perfectly though, and it looked gorgeous. There was a purple stone in the center, a sapphire if she wasn't mistaken, surrounded by delicate golden petals covered in tiny diamonds. It was perfect.

"I got that from a shop near our hotel," Jane told her. "I ordered it a couple weeks ago. I had to measure your finger while you were asleep."

"Oh, Jane! You knew two weeks ago that you wanted to marry me?"

"Honey, I've known I _wanted_ to marry you for a lot longer than that. I just didn't know I _could_."

"Well, you can!" Maura pulled Jane close. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you are right now." Jane kissed her, and the quartet began playing "Here Comes the Bride." Maura couldn't help but laugh.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The plane ride home was quite different from the one coming.

On the way to Paris, they'd both been filled with nervous excitement, neither one knowing what would happen next after their kiss. Now they were going home to plan a wedding, to build a life together. Jane doubted she would ever be able to hear any mention of Paris again without becoming turned on. She'd had the best sex of her life there, and lots of it. She was looking forward to continuing this lively new sex life at home, in Maura's big bed, though she knew they couldn't keep doing it around the clock like they had on vacation.

"As soon as we get home, I'm going to get a binder and start our wedding planning journal," Maura gushed as they flew over the Atlantic.

"Well, you can reuse my moving journal."

Maura lit up. "I can! _You_ won't be needing it!"

"Nope, it'll take me about two minutes to get moved into your house. I hardly have any stuff, and it's already packed. I just have to go down the block, get it from Tommy, and bring it to your place."

"I need to buy you some new things, to replace what you lost in the fire."

"Yeah, I can get a new collection of signed baseballs to go next to your art sculptures."

"We'll find a place for your things. I can redecorate if necessary."

"Maura, I don't want you to do that."

"Jane, we need to make it _our_ house. I want you to be at home there."

Jane kissed her. "I feel at home wherever you are."

Maura smiled. "We need to start working on our guest list, and decide who we want in our wedding party. Also, we have to research caterers, musicians, florists, photographers…and we have to decide who will officiate! Some people pick someone they know to officiate and have them get ordained online…and, most importantly, we have to pick a date and reserve our venue!"

"Maura, you're making my head hurt! Can't we just go to the town hall on Monday?"

Maura's face told her that was the worst idea she'd ever had.

"Okay, so how long is this going to take?" said Jane in resignation. "When you say 'set a date,' will it be next month? The month after that?"

"It takes about a year to plan a wedding. We should check with Frankie and Nina though, to make sure our date doesn't clash with theirs."

"A year? Maura, that's too long! I just want to do this! I wanna call you my wife."

Maura's face softened. "I do too, Jane, but we've been dreaming of weddings our whole life. We should get to have our dream wedding."

" _You've_ been dreaming. I haven't."

"You told me your dream wedding. Fenway, Red Sox jersey, hot dogs and frozen lemonade."

Jane smiled, surprised that Maura remembered all those details. "That was my dream when I was five. I hardly think _you'd_ get married like that."

"I told you I would."

"No you didn't."

"I hinted at it. I asked you if I could come."

"You didn't say, 'can I come and be your bride?' You just said, 'Can I come?' I assumed you wanted to attend the wedding."

"Well first of all, you weren't planning a wedding. And secondly, if you were, I would just assume you would invite your _best friend_. I was offering to give you the wedding you wanted. Except I was afraid to say it outright, so I just hinted."

"You would have given me my Red Sox wedding?"

"Of course. And now I really can!"

"But what about _your_ dream wedding, with the volcano and the fancy dress and the different kinds of cake?"

"I could still have the dress and cake in your wedding fantasy, and we could go to Greece for our honeymoon. A Boston wedding would be much easier on our family and friends."

Jane looked at her for a minute. "So can we really do it?"

"We _are_ planning a real wedding."

"At Fenway?"

"If you like. Or we could have just the reception there, and choose a different venue for the ceremony. Or vice versa. Whichever would make you happiest."

"Can we have hot dogs and frozen lemonade at the reception?"

"We'll negotiate on that later."

"Can I wear a Red Sox jersey?"

"No."

"Not even—"

"Nope. You're wearing a dress."

"So you're only willing to give me _part_ of my fantasy wedding."

"I'm giving you the most important part. The rest is called compromise, and that's what marriage is all about." Maura took out a notebook and began writing down names.

"What are you doing?"

"Starting the guest list. We can't book any venue until we have an idea how many people we want to come."

"Let's just keep it small and simple, okay? Just bring the people we're close to."

"Should we invite your dad, or would that just cause drama?"

Jane thought that over. "Why don't I see how he reacts to the news first?"

"Okay. How do you want to go about telling everyone, anyway?"

"Well, we can just make a group announcement to the people we normally hang out with next time we all get together for dinner, which we'll probably do soon after we get back. But I wanna tell Ma first, on her own."

"What do you think she'll say?"

"I hope that she's happy for us, but I don't really know."

"What will you do if she doesn't approve?"

"Marry you anyway. You're the love of my life."

Maura gave her a dazzling smile. "I hope she will approve."

"Even if she doesn't now, she'll come around." Jane took Maura's hand, running her thumb lightly over the engagement ring. "It feels weird, you know? This sense of freedom."

"What do you mean?"

"I love you, I've loved you for a long time, but…it doesn't hurt anymore."

Maura grinned. "I think it feels amazing."

~R&I~

When Frankie picked them up from the airport, he wanted to take them straight to the Dirty Robber for a big welcome home celebration, but they convinced him to put it off until the next night.

"We're way too tired," Jane told him. "We're just gonna go home, order a pizza, and call it a night. We've been up for I don't even know how many hours straight."

"Okay, but tomorrow night, we're all getting together!"

"You bet. Make sure everybody's there," said Jane with a conspiratorial smile in Maura's direction.

"So, which house am I taking you to?" asked Frankie. "Tommy's at your old place now. Are you staying there tonight?"

"Nope, staying at Maura's."

"Yeah, it's probably quieter there."

"Well, I wouldn't count on that," said Jane. "Ma took the night off so she could see us."

Frankie let them out at Maura's and even helped them drag in their luggage before heading back home. They didn't see any sign of Ma at first, so they took their things up to Maura's bedroom – _their_ bedroom – and began to unpack. Jane made a point of digging out her little golden Eiffel Tower model and setting it out on the dresser. She was glad they'd gotten it; it would always serve as a reminder of where their relationship, or at least this part of it, began.

"Maura?" came Angela's worried voice from downstairs.

"I'm up here, Angela!" Maura called back.

"I didn't hear you get in! Is Jane with you?"

"We'll be right down, Ma," Jane called, turning to Maura. "I think we should just tell her now, get it over with," she said quietly. "Try to keep her from seeing your ring until then."

"Okay. Maybe you should be the one to say it. It might sound better coming from you." She looked very nervous, so Jane gave her a quick hug and kiss.

"It'll be fine," she promised her. "She'll love you no matter what. And even if she doesn't, _I_ will."

They went downstairs together, where Angela wrapped them both into a bone-crushing hug.

"I missed you both so much," she said, pulling back to look at them. "There's something…different about you two."

"It was a really fun trip," offered Jane. "Come on, sit down in the kitchen and we'll tell you all about it. Maura, you wanna order that pizza?"

"Sure!" said Maura, getting out her phone.

"I love all the pictures you sent," said Angela, sitting down at the counter. "It felt like there was something different about you in the pictures, too, but I couldn't put my finger on it."

"We probably just looked happy, Ma. We were enjoying the trip."

Angela smiled. "Are you staying here tonight?"

"Yep."

"It's going to be hard saying goodbye to you again so soon. When are you leaving?"

Jane looked at Maura, who had just finished placing their pizza order. Maura nodded encouragingly.

"Actually, Ma, I had a little change of plans," said Jane. "I'm not going to Quantico. I'm staying in Boston."

Angela looked up at her in shock. "You're staying? Oh, honey, that's wonderful! But where will you live? Tommy and TJ are in your old place now."

"I'm going to live here, with Maura. Actually, we kind of have something important to tell you."

"Something more important than what you already said? I already feel like Christmas has come early!"

Jane looked at Maura. She was standing with her hands clasped in a way that hid her ring, muscles tensed, grinning so wide it looked like her face was going to break open. Whether the smile was from fear, excitement, or both was unclear. Jane decided she'd better just spit it out so Maura didn't have to stay frozen like that.

"Well, Ma, Maura and I are getting…married."

"Married!" Maura exclaimed excitedly, holding out her hand to show Angela the ring.

Angela looked from one to the other, gaping. "I don't understand. Who are you marrying."

"Each other, Ma," said Jane. "I'm going to marry Maura."

Maura sidled around the kitchen counter and put her arm around Jane's waist. "Jane bought me this ring," she said, still holding it out. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yeah, and now I can't afford _not_ to marry Maura," Jane joked.

"So you two…you're going to have a lesbian wedding?"

"Yeah, Ma. That's been legal in Massachusetts since 2004."

Angela still looked stunned. "I have to admit, there were times when I wondered about you two, but then you never…are you sure this is what you want?"

"Pretty sure, Ma. I've loved Maura for years, but I just didn't think she'd feel the same way. Now that I know she does, the only thing that made sense was to get hitched." She gave Maura a squeeze. "We're both pretty excited, and we're hoping you will be too."

"Yeah, I…I just need time to get used to it, I think, but as long as you're happy…let me see that ring."

Maura held her hand out, and Angela carefully examined the ring. "That is _beautiful_! Janie, you picked that out?"

"Yeah," said Jane modestly. "I had a hard time finding something pretty enough for her, but…"

"I never knew you had such good taste in jewelry!"

"The way she proposed was very romantic too," said Maura. "I'll have to show you the pictures of the place she took me to. She hired a string quartet and brought a picnic with champagne! She even rowed me out to the island she'd chosen as the proposal spot!"

"My Janie?" Angela looked at her daughter in amazement.

"Well, Ma, you've always said Maura's like a daughter to you. Now we're making it official."

"Of course." Angela pulled Maura in for a hug. "Of course I'd love to have you for a daughter." She pulled away and reached for Jane. "Now two of my babies are getting married at the same time!" She gave Jane a big squeeze. "Maybe you two can have a double wedding with Frankie and Nina!"

Maura nodded in excitement, then looked at Jane, horror appearing in her eyes.

"I don't think so, Ma," Jane told her. "We want our special day to be just ours, and I'm sure Frankie and Nina want that too."

"It was just a suggestion. I have to throw you two an engagement party now! I didn't have a real one for Frankie and Nina yet. Maybe I can throw you a joint engagement party?"

"Yeah, that would be fine," said Jane, unable to stop herself from smiling. "Thanks, Ma."

"Thank you for deciding not to leave me!" Angela kissed Jane's cheek. "And thank you for making an honest woman out of my daughter!" She kissed Maura's too, much to the blonde's adorable surprise.

"Well, there's still a lot to work out," said Maura. "We had some ideas for venues. What do you think about…"

As the two began chattering about wedding plans, Jane realized they were going to drive her crazy over the next several months. But when she looked at the excitement in Maura's eyes, she knew it would be worth it.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Jane," Maura gasped. "That's perfect…don't stop… _ohhhh_..." Maura clung to her fiancée, breath coming quickly now. They were due at the Dirty Robber in 15 minutes, but here they were, naked, Maura lying back on the bed with her legs spread wide and Jane's fingers pumping inside her, each stroke harder and faster than the one before. Jane was leaning over her, kissing her neck, her own breasts hanging down and gently rubbing against Maura's. It was so hot, everything about this was hot, but Maura was mainly focused on the building pleasure between her legs. She knew she was going to explode soon. She could feel it everywhere in her body. She held onto Jane, feeling the heat in her taut muscles, thrusting her hips harder to take her in deeper.

"You like this?" Jane said in a low voice, right in Maura's ear. The sheer sexiness of her voice made Maura shudder.

"Yes, yes you know I do."

"So you want me to keep doing it?" Jane teased her clit with her thumb.

" _Yes!_ "

"Just like this?"

"Just like that! Jane…"

"You know what I want?" Jane's voice dropped to a whisper. "I want to hear you scream my name." One final thrust sent Maura over the edge, and she did exactly that, her scream of ecstasy traveling through the house. Fortunately, Angela was already at the Dirty Robber.

Completely spent, Maura lay there, chest heaving, as Jane stretched out beside her. She watched as Jane languidly licked Maura's wetness off of her fingers. Maura wouldn't have thought it possible, but the action turned her on all over again.

"You taste good," Jane remarked casually.

"Oh Jane," breathed Maura, using what little energy she had left to roll into Jane's arms. "We can't do it again. We're running late as it is."

Jane laughed. "I didn't say anything about doing it again."

"I'm speaking to both of us." She kissed Jane chest. "You've gotten really skilled at bringing me to orgasm."

"I was a motivated learner. Who wouldn't be? You're amazing."

"So are you." Maura turned her head to look down at Jane's naked form, still amazed that this was something she was allowed to see, to stare at. "I love you so much."

"You only love me for my body."

Maura looked up. "Now you know that's not true."

Jane laughed. "Yeah, I know. And I really love you too, and not just for your body. Although you are unbelievably sexy." Jane wrapped her arms tightly around Maura. "I just keep thinking about the fact that I could have been fucking you all this time. All those nights I spent either alone or in bed with a guy I wasn't that into, and I could have been here fucking you instead. What was wrong with me?"

"I don't know, but we're both to blame. I wish I'd kissed you the first time I ever thought about it."

"Which was?"

"When I got in bed with you the first time, and you asked me if we were having a sleepover or if it was my way of saying I was attracted to you."

"Really? What was it about that night? That was when I started thinking about it too."

"I suppose the sense of danger that night made our emotions raw. You were afraid of Hoyt coming after you, and I was afraid of seeing you get hurt. That brought our feelings to the surface."

"So we should have gotten together that night. Imagine where we'd be now. We'd already be married, we—we might have had a baby." Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper on the word 'baby,' and Maura thought of the baby she'd lost, the one they might have raised together. She knew Jane had felt relief as well as sadness – she really hadn't wanted to have Casey's baby – but she had loved the baby, and it was something that continued to haunt them both.

"It's too late to change the past," Maura said gently. "But there's still a lot we can do to change the future. And I meant it when I said you would still be a wonderful mother someday. If you still want that, it's something we can do."

"You were pretty excited about that baby, weren't you?" said Jane, smiling sadly. "I think you were more excited that I was. I was mostly freaked out." She kissed Maura's head. "I think we'd enjoy being moms together, but let's just do one thing at a time, okay? Wedding first. I can already tell that's going to take up a lot of time."

"It's going to be so much fun though!" said Maura, excitement bubbling in her once again. She looked down fondly at her ring. "We'd better get dressed and get to the Dirty Robber."

"I need a shower," said Jane. "I smell like sex. Which I like, personally, but…"

"I guess we both should take one," Maura agreed. "If we got in together…"

"We'd just end up fucking again. I'll use the guest shower."

~R&I~

They arrived at the Dirty Robber half an hour later, rushed and a little bedraggled, to find everyone sitting around a table, talking and laughing as they ate. There were shouts of excitement when people began to spot Jane and Maura, and the two women went around to hug everyone before sitting down and placing their food orders.

"Look who's finally back in the country!" said Korsak. "Jane, how long are you with us for?"

"Um," said Jane. "About that."

"Jane changed her mind!" squealed Angela. "She's not going to the FBI!"

"Ma!" hissed Jane. "Can you let me tell them my own news?"

"Sorry! You can still tell them your _really_ big news!"

Jane and Maura looked at each other, and Jane nodded. Maura broke into a grin, looking around the table as she took Jane's hand.

"Jane proposed to me in Paris," she announced. "We're getting married."

There was silence for a moment, and then the whole table erupted into exclamations of surprise and excitement.

"It's about time you two figured it out!" said Nina, running over and wrapping her arms around both of them.

"I _knew_ you liked her," Frankie told Jane. "I couldn't figure out why you wouldn't admit it."

"I knew it too!" said Tommy. "Can I hug her now, since she's going to be my sister-in-law?"

"Only if you hug her the same way you'd hug me," insisted Jane. Tommy hugged them both chastely, and TJ hugged them too. Maura heard someone say, "She's your Aunt Maura now," and then TJ said, "Hi Aunt Maura!" and her heart melted on the spot. Maura kissed the little boy's head before being wrapped in another hug, this time by Kent.

"I hate to say I told you so," he said to Jane, "but I did tell you so."

"Liar," griped Jane, giving him a look that stopped his incoming hug in its tracks. "You love to say I told you so. It's probably the only reason you wanted us to get together, so you could say it."

"I'm so happy to see you two finally being honest about yourselves," said Kiki. "Now, tell us the truth: how long have you been a couple?"

"A month," said Maura.

"No way, it was longer than that," said Kiki.

"It really wasn't," said Jane. "We got together in Paris"

Kiki gasped. "I thought you were just hiding it!"

"I never believed her!" said Korsak. "You two are really lesbians now?"

"Well, we're in a lesbian relationship," said Jane.

"We love each other. That's all that matters," said Maura, lifting Jane's hand and kissing it.

"Holy crap, look at that ring!" exclaimed Kiki. Suddenly she and Nina were glued to Maura, both of them holding her hand and examining her ring.

"We've got two weddings to plan now!" announced Angela giddily.

"So where are you going to work if you're not going to the FBI?" Korsak asked Jane.

"I don't know yet."

"Your position hasn't been filled at BPD," Frankie pointed out. "They're borrowing someone from the drug unit. You could come back."

"It's tempting," said Jane, "but I don't know."

"I'd love to work with you again," Maura told her. "But I also love the idea of you not being shot at anymore."

Jane ran her fingers over Maura's hair. "I'll give it some thought once I've settled in."

The lively conversation over both upcoming weddings continued for some time, as well as a discussion over when each person at the table first suspected something going on between Jane and Maura. To their surprise, everyone except Korsak suspected something; Kent and Kiki both said they saw it the first time they met them. Maura was enjoying herself so much, she paid little attention when three soldiers came in and sat at the bar. She didn't even think about them until she and Jane got up to leave and one of them made eye contact with her.

It was Casey Jones.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

When Jane left her desk at BPD, she had thought it would be a very long time before she saw it again. She assumed by then someone else would be sitting there.

She was wrong about that.

Today when she strolled in, her desk looked just as she'd left it, and no one was using it. She sat down in her old chair and leaned back, looking around. The only real change was that Frankie was sitting at Korsak's old desk

"What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"Just stopping by to see my little brother. And to tell him really exciting news!"

"You're coming back?"

"No, I'm still thinking about that, but me and Maura reserved our wedding venue last night!"

Frankie shook his head. "It's still weird to think of you two getting hitched. I mean I thought you had a thing for her for a long time, but you never did anything about it, so I thought maybe I was wrong. But now you're marrying her."

"I know! And guess where?!"

"Where?"

"Fenway Park! We reserved it for next spring! We're getting married in the park, then reception inside, _and_ we get to do an engagement photo shoot there! And we also have to do one at the beach, because Maura said so, but I can wear a Red Sox jersey during the Fenway shoot! It's going to be the awesomest wedding in history!"

"Wow," said Frankie. "Nina and I are just getting married in our old church and having the reception at the Dirty Robber. Korsak said he wouldn't charge us."

"The Dirty Robber's cool too. But you're going to have fun at our Fenway wedding! Also, we're keeping it pretty simple, but it would mean a lot to me if you and Tommy would stand up with me during the ceremony."

"Yeah, of course. Listen, I'm sorry about that stuff a few years ago, with Maura. I was just confused. She um, she set me straight. I'm totally over it, I have been for a long time, and now there's Nina so it's all good. I'm happy for you two."

"What stuff with Maura?"

"You know, when I kind of liked her and you told me to back off…I didn't realize it was because _you_ wanted her because, you know, you were with Casey then."

"Oh Frankie, I'd forgotten all about that. It's no big deal, I mean it's not like you did anything but act weird around her for a while. It's not as bad as Tommy, I mean he actually tried to kiss her!"

"Yeah," said Frankie, laughing nervously.

Jane narrowed her eyes. "You didn't try anything like that, did you?"

"Um, maybe just once…but…"

"You tried to kiss my fiancée?"

"She wasn't your fiancée then!"

"She stopped you, right?"

"Well, I…I kind of wanted to do it fast, before I lost my nerve…"

"So she didn't have a chance to stop you?"

"No, not really, but then I looked at her face, and I decided I'd better leave. Speaking of which, I need to go pick up a report…"

"Nice try." Jane walked over to his desk and cuffed him on the ear.

"Ow! Hey! Look, it was a long time ago, I didn't know you were into her, and I promised never to do it again! She said I'm like a brother to her, and she's right. She's really more of a sister to me."

"Damn right, she's going to be your sister- _in-law._ "

"I know! I just didn't know that yet, I mean even Luke Skywalker kissed Leia once before he knew she was his sister!"

Jane suppressed a laugh, but before she could say anything else, she heard a voice say, "Hello, Jane."

She looked up to see Casey Jones in the doorway, wearing his army fatigues as usual. She knew she shouldn't be too surprised – Maura had mentioned glimpsing him at the Dirty Robber the other night – but she had hoped he wouldn't try to talk to her. She didn't think they had anything left to say to each other, unless he wanted to talk about the miscarriage, and she wasn't sure she was up for that. She had given him the news by email, and he hadn't said much in response. It had been nearly three years now, but perhaps he still felt they needed to process what had happened.

"Casey," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping I could talk to you."

"Well, you're in luck. I happen to be visiting today. Would you like to go down and grab a cup of coffee?" This was going to be awkward, but she might as well get it over with.

"Sure." He followed her onto the elevator. "What do you mean by visiting?"

"I don't work here anymore, but I'm visiting today. What about you?"

"I'm retired from active duty. I'm working at the veteran's center again. Why did you leave your job? I thought you loved being a cop."

"I did, but I felt like I was ready for a change. I thought maybe I'd try doing something a little less dangerous."

"Did you decide that because of…the baby?"

"No." _Not because of that baby, but maybe a future baby._

They walked out of the elevator and into the café. "Does your mom still work here?" Casey asked.

"No, she works at the Dirty Robber now," said Jane. "I guess a lot's changed since you were last here."

"So fill me in."

Jane sighed, trying to remember what things were like when she left off with Casey. "Well, I told you about Frost."

"Yes, when you told me you were…"

"Yeah. So Korsak became my partner again after that, but he's retired now. Oh, and he got married. Ma broke up with Cavanaugh, and now she's dating a doctor. Tommy and Lydia got married, and moved to Chicago, and then she left him, so now he and TJ are back in Boston. He's a plumber now, he's doing great. My apartment burned down, so I don't live there anymore." There was a pause while they each placed their coffee orders. "Frankie's engaged now, to Nina, the new cop they hired after Frost died."

"And you? What are you doing now?"

Jane shrugged as she picked up her coffee and made her way to an empty table. "I guess you could say I'm between jobs. Trying to figure out where to go next."

"How are you managing? And where do you live, since your apartment burned down?"

Jane smiled. "I live with Maura."

"Ah. It's probably safer for you, to have a roommate. I always worried about you living alone."

Jane frowned. "I was a cop."

"Even cops aren't invincible."

"Well, I'm not living with Maura so she can protect me from bad guys. We're getting married."

He stared at her, completely stunned. "You're getting _married_? To…a _woman_?"

"Yes, to Maura. Don't act surprised. Nearly everyone saw it coming."

"Well I won't pretend I did. How could you marry _her_? You're not a lesbian."

"I don't think that's really your assessment to make."

"We were happy together, Jane. You were a normal, healthy woman."

Jane bristled. "I'm a normal, healthy woman now. And I broke up with you three years ago. I'm in love with Maura, and we're getting married. There's no reason for you to take that personally."

"How can I not take it personally? Everyone who knows us knows that I was planning to marry you, Jane. It's embarrassing enough that you broke things off, but do you realize what they'll say when they find out you're marrying a woman? They'll say I must have been so bad, I turned you gay. If you can't act like a real woman, people won't see me as a real man. It's humiliating."

Jane was floored. "I honestly don't see how any of my life choices reflect on you at all, considering that we have no relationship and haven't for some time, but if you think I'm going to not marry the love of my life just to keep people from calling your manhood into question—"

"The love of your life? Once I was the love of your life, Jane. I've thought of you as my soul mate for a long time, and I can accept you not wanting to marry me, but I cannot accept that you would choose to spend your life in a deviant relationship when that is _not_ who you are."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. First off, I'm not your fucking soul mate. Secondly, I'm not going to sit here and listen to you insult Maura like that. Even when we were dating, I had a stronger relationship with her than I did with you."

Casey scrutinized her for a moment. "Were you fucking her while you were dating me? Was that what you did while I was in Afghanistan?"

"No, I wasn't. But you know what? I thought about it."

"I don't believe this." Casey picked up his coffee and stormed out, leaving Jane alone.

Jane sat for a moment, finishing her coffee in silence, a bit rattled by the exchange. It was bizarre that he had reacted that way, but what could she do? She got up, threw her cup away, and glanced at the bulletin board on the wall. They were a few posters for local events, including an outdated Pride poster (Jane smiled to herself at that. She and Maura should go next year) and a few job postings. One of those caught her eye: _Crime Victims Services Coordinators needed_. Jane was familiar with the concept. The victim services coordinators worked with victims of assault or domestic violence to find them whatever they needed – a spot in a shelter, counseling, victim compensation benefits, etc. They also helped the victims (or families of victims, in a murder case), navigate the complicated legal system. It wasn't so different from what she did before, really, except that the focus was on the victims instead of the perpetrators. She took a picture of the flyer before heading down to Maura's office.

She found Maura at her desk, looking through a report. Not so long ago, Jane would have known what was in the report and would have had some new piece of information to give Maura. Now seeing Maura was her only reason to be here.

"There's my beautiful bride!" she said. Maura looked up immediately and smiled, her whole face lighting up.

"Jane!" she said, standing up to greet her. "What are you doing here?"

"I got bored sitting around at home, so I decided to come see everyone, and maybe take you out to lunch." She took Maura in her arms and kissed her. She felt the usual spark of electricity when those soft lips touched hers, but she also felt something else as she remembered Frankie admitting he had kissed those same lips. She pulled back.

"Is something wrong?" asked Maura.

"Not really wrong, but…why didn't you tell me Frankie kissed you?"

Maura's eyes widened. "He told you about that?"

"He didn't mean to, but the truth came out, as it does eventually. So why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, he did it when I was on my way into your apartment. He was leaving and I was coming. I asked him how his lip was healing – this was after his fight with Tommy – and he said it was healing well, in fact he would show me how well, and then he kissed me. I was very surprised and I didn't know what to say, and he said he would leave before things got any more awkward. So I went into your apartment, where I found you very distraught. You were putting your engagement ring in an envelope to send back to Casey, and you had an email from him where he said he wasn't leaving the Army after all. Then you brought out a positive pregnancy test."

"Ah. I guess I can see where it would have been hard for you to fit in the news that my jerk brother had just assaulted your face."

Maura laughed. "I wouldn't say he _assaulted_ me, but it was a very uncomfortable moment, for both of us. But I was quite focused on the news of your pregnancy and your breakup, so I mostly put it out of my mind, although of course I remembered every time I saw Frankie. A week or so later, I finally confronted him about it and told him it could never happen again. He agreed, and that was that."

Jane bit her lip. "You did consider it, though. Being with Frankie. At least for a little bit."

"For about a day, after you told me you were going to marry Casey. I was heartbroken, but someone who reminded me of you was interested in me. Of course I thought about it."

Jane nodded. "Yeah, I guess I was the stupidest one in that situation." She kissed Maura again. "Have any of my other relatives put moves on you?"

Maura laughed. "Not at all."

"Good. I guess the important thing is that I need to be the only Rizzoli who kisses these lips from now on."

"You're the only _person_ who gets to kiss these lips ever again." Maura kissed her once more, and Jane reveled in the electric thrill.

"So, I just ran into Casey, and he kinda flipped out when I told him I was engaged to you."

"Really? What bothered him the most about it?"

"The insult to his manhood."

Maura raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yes, unfortunately, really. Apparently no one will think he's a real man now that his ex-fiancée is engaged to a woman. It could only have happened if I thought he was so bad, it just completely turned me off to men."

"Well that's just ridiculous."

"Is it?" said Jane with a wicked smile. "He really wasn't that good in bed. You're at least a thousand times better."

Maura smiled back. "Only a thousand?"

"Probably closer to a hundred thousand."

"Hmm, maybe I need to work harder."

"Do me right here and I'll upgrade you to a million times better."

Maura looked at her watch. "It _is_ time for my lunch break." Decisively, she closed and locked the doors, closing all the blinds as well. Jane could feel herself becoming wet just watching her do it so readily.

"Okay, sit back on the couch," said Maura. Jane sat and leaned back as she had done so many times before, noting for the first time that reclining like this on this particular couch left her crotch right at the edge of the seat. She was pretty sure Maura noticed too as she knelt before her and began undoing her belt. "I'm not sure anyone has ever appreciated you fully before," she said softly, easing Jane's pants and underwear down her hips. "But I do."

And with that, she dove right in, her tongue "appreciating" Jane with a greater intensity than ever before. Jane moaned, looking around the office at the masks and pictures she had come to develop a fondness for down through the years as she came down here for her many chats with Maura. One thing she had never expected was that she would one day find herself staring at these masks while in the throes of sexual ecstasy. But she certainly was today, and with Maura working her as hard as she was, it wasn't long at all before Jane was coming, her hands on Maura's head as she tried to keep her cries to a minimum to avoid alerting everyone in the crime lab to their activities. Maura, looking pleased with her accomplishment, fastened Jane back up and then snuggled up beside her on the couch.

"I kind of love you," whispered Jane, stroking her hair.

"I love you too. More than anyone." Maura took Jane's hand, idly tracing each finger with her thumb. "I'd never have done what I just did for anyone else, you know. But I've thought about it before. With you."

"Oh really?" Jane kissed Maura's head. "Then we can cross this off our list of places where we should have kissed, but didn't."

Maura chuckled lightly. "I can't wait to cross more places off the list."

"We'll have to get busy." She rested her hand on Maura's head, savoring the softness of her hair. She's always loved Maura's hair, but she used to need an excuse to touch it. Not anymore. "So, do you think I'd make a good victim services coordinator?"

"Yes. You're a very compassionate person, and you always developed a good rapport with the victims' families. I'm sure you'd be great at that job." She lifted her head. "Is that a job you're considering?"

"Yeah, I saw a posting for it upstairs. I'm not sure if it's what I'd want to do, you know, forever, but it would sure beat sitting at home all the time, and it's work I could feel good about, you know?"

"Really, it wouldn't be all that different from what you used to do," reasoned Maura. "But a lot less dangerous. I think you should apply. I'd be really proud of you!"

Jane smiled. "I'll call the number as soon as I get home."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Maura was nervous. She was in the middle of making final revisions of her book for her editor; she had to meet with several photographers this week, which Jane was being difficult about; and she still hadn't had a chance to look at any dresses in person. What if she couldn't _find_ her dream dress? She'd feel so much better when she had a chance to get out there and see for herself what was available, maybe talk to someone about alterations that could be made if she couldn't find what she wanted. Jane didn't want to look yet because she was getting ready to start a new job, and in the middle of all this, they had to attend their joint engagement party with Frankie and Nina, which Angela was throwing in Maura and Jane's house. And she had invited Hope, without consulting Maura. She hadn't even had a chance to talk to Hope since getting back, and she had no idea how she might react to news of the engagement.

"You ready to go downstairs and face the music?" Jane asked Maura.

"I haven't even had a chance to talk to the bank," said Maura. "What if I get hit by a car and end up in a coma for months?"

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Then we'd have to push back the wedding date, because I can't do all this planning on my own."

"You couldn't, because you wouldn't have access to my bank accounts! You wouldn't have any rights to the house either! I need to put your name on everything."

"Maura, none of that is important to me."

"It's important to me! We're getting married; that means we should equally own the house, and we should merge our bank accounts. I want you to have access to everything."

"Well, there's not really much to merge. I don't have much left in my account."

"Which is all the more reason why your name needs to be on _my_ accounts. We need to take care of that soon, Jane, before something happens."

"Well, try not to walk out in traffic in the meantime."

Maura smiled at Jane, really taking the time to notice how she looked. She'd put on a red satin dress that belonged to Maura, but which fit her quite well, and of course showed a little more leg than it did on Maura. The neckline was low enough to show off her elegant collarbones, and she'd swept her hair up so only a few stray curls hung down. She'd also done a nice job with her makeup. She looked unbelievably sexy, and Maura could only imagine what a beautiful bride she'd make. That was when she remembered something extremely important.

"Oh, Jane! I almost forgot! I have to give you something before the party." She pulled a small box out of a dresser drawer and turned around, opening the box and presenting it to her fiancée. Inside was a gold ring with a ruby on it, flanked by two small diamonds.

"You got me a ring too?" said Jane, a smile spreading across her face.

"Yes! You've got your mark on me, so I want to put mine on you. I chose a ruby for the center in honor of the Red Sox."

"Maura, you didn't have to."

"But I wanted to. Give me your hand." Jane did, and Maura proudly slid the ring onto her finger. "Now we both have one!" she said, standing on tiptoe to give Jane a kiss.

"Thank you," said Jane, still smiling. "I kind of really love you."

"I love you too," said Maura, smiling back.

"We'd better get downstairs now. Ma's expecting us." Jane took Maura's arm and guided her downstairs, where Angela had everything set up. On the kitchen counter was a cake that said:

 _CONGRATULATIONS_

 _FRANKIE & NINA_

 _JANE & MAURA_

On one side of the cake was a little plastic groom, white with dark hair, next to a black bride. On the other side were two brides, one blonde and one brunette. Maura smiled and took a few deep breaths, reminded herself that this was the important thing. She and Jane were going to be brides, together, and they had the support of family and friends.

"Angela, this is really sweet," said Maura, but before Angela could respond, guests started to arrive. Soon they were swept into a whirlwind of greetings and congratulations. To Maura's relief, when Hope arrived, she just hugged her and told her how happy she was.

"I always knew Jane loved you. I'm so glad you're going to spend your life with her," she told Maura. "I know she'll treat you well."

Hope couldn't stay long since she had to get to her clinic, but everyone else sat down for dinner. They were just starting on the main course when there was a knock at the door.

"Who would that be?" said Angela. "We're not expecting anyone else."

"I'll get it," said Jane warily. She went to the door and returned a minute later with a brooding expression, Frank Rizzoli behind her.

"Dad," said Frankie, the color draining from his face. "I didn't know you were coming."

"It was supposed to be a surprise," said Frank. "Tommy told me you had gotten engaged. I wanted to meet my new daughter-in-law."

"Oh, well that would be me," said Nina. She stood up and offered Frank her hand. "I'm Nina Holiday."

Frank just looked at her for a minute, but then he took her hand. "Frank Rizzoli, Senior. I hope my son hasn't been any trouble."

"Not at all, he's very sweet!"

"Um, we can set an extra place," said Maura uncertainly. The last time Frank had been here, a big fight had erupted at the dinner table. She wasn't sure inviting him to eat here again was a good idea, but it was certainly the polite thing to do. She jumped up and found an extra plate and silverware. Everyone shuffled around to make a spot for him at the table.

"It feels like I'm interrupting," he said, sitting down. "Am I not welcome at the table with my own family?"

 _Oh no_ , thought Maura. _He's been drinking._

"You're welcome as long as you can be civil," said Angela in a warning tone.

"Are you accusing me of being uncivil?" said Frank. "Who's the man with you? You've got a different boyfriend every time I show up."

"That's because you only show up once every three years," said Angela. "This is Ron."

"Angela and I have been dating for nearly two years now," said Ron. "She's a lovely woman. A man would be a fool not to appreciate her."

"Two years, that's how long Tommy's whole marriage lasted," said Frank.

"Dad, please," Tommy hissed. "My son's at the table."

"TJ," said Jane carefully, "you're welcome to go watch TV upstairs in the bedroom if you want."

"I want a piece of cake," he said.

"I'll get you a piece to take upstairs," Jane told him. She got up and took him to the kitchen with her, then upstairs.

"What, are you afraid I'll tell him his mother was supposed to marry me?" asked Frank.

"You should be more worried that I'll tell him that you didn't want anything to do with him until you knew for sure he was your grandson and not your son," Tommy shot back. "At least I was willing to take responsibility for my kid."

"Dad, why did you really come here?" Frankie asked impatiently as Jane returned to the table.

"I told you why. I'm here to celebrate your engagement. Honestly, I'm over the moon you got a woman to marry you. When you were a kid I always told your mom you were too sensitive. I was afraid you were gonna turn out to be a homo."

Maura looked to Jane fearfully. "It's okay," Jane quietly. "I will never be ashamed of you." She kissed Maura's cheek, and suddenly Maura felt the heat of Frank's eyes on them.

"Jane, what are you doing?" said Frank. "This isn't France. You don't go around kissing your friends here."

"Well, Dad," said Jane, "Frankie's not the only one who's engaged at this table."

"What do you mean?"

"The party's also for me. I just got engaged to Maura."

"Are you serious?" Frank looked at Angela. "You're supporting this?"

"Janie's happy," said Angela. "And we all love Maura, I'm just glad that they—"

"I don't believe this. I move away for a few years and my daughter turns into a lesbian? And you're all encouraging her?"

"Dad, we're not homophobes," said Tommy. "Jane can marry whoever she wants."

"It's not even a real marriage! Jane, honey, you have to know this is unnatural! We didn't bring you up like this."

Suddenly everyone seemed to be shouting at once, and Maura felt very lightheaded. _I'm tearing this family apart_ , she thought. She got up from the table and went upstairs, remembered TJ was in the bedroom, and went up one more flight to the study. She sat down at her desk and looked down at her engagement ring, wondering if this was really worth it to Jane. Frank wasn't the only family member who would react like this; she had cousins and aunts and uncles, many of whom were devout Catholics. There had to be others who would see things the same way Frank did. How many of her relatives would even come to the wedding? She deserved more than this. Maybe this was the real reason she had tried to run from her feelings for Maura.

"Maura?"

She looked up, hearing Jane's voice from the staircase. "I'm here!"

Jane came up the stairs and into the study. "Hey. I got a little worried when I couldn't find you. You kinda disappeared while everyone was yelling."

"I didn't…know what to do."

"Eh, you were smart to get out." Jane came closer and started to rub Maura's back. "He's gone now. Peace has been restored. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, though."

"It's okay. It's…the family I'm marrying into."

"Yeah, you sure you still want to do that?"

"Yes, of course. Are you sure you still want _me_? He's probably not the only one—"

"Whoa, stop right there. Maura, of _course_ I still want you. I'm not going to give up the woman I love just to make my dad happy. If he loved me like he should, he wouldn't ask me to."

Maura nodded, but tears were welling up in her eyes. "I just don't want to be the reason that you can't get along with everyone in your family."

"Hey." Jane pulled Maura from the chair and sat down with her on the love seat, taking Maura's hands in hers. "First of all, you're not the reason my dad's being a jerk. He does that already. And secondly, we're getting _married_. That means a whole lot more than joining bank accounts. It means we're joining our lives together. It means it's going to be you and me against the world from now on, which is kind of the way it's been for years, but now it's official. And the other thing that's now official is that you're the most important person in my life. Everyone else comes after you. So that really kind of simplifies things, because all I need to do is make you happy. Anyone who supports that can stay in my life, and anyone who doesn't won't."

Maura put her head down on Jane's chest. "And you don't mind if that drives people away?"

Jane ran her fingers slowly through Maura's hair. "Not if they're people who are disrespecting my future wife. Who could possibly be more important than your wife?"

Maura smiled, again picturing Jane as a bride. "No one."

"That's right. So don't you ever apologize for how someone else treats you, okay? I will deal with the people who treat you wrong. I don't care who it is."

"Okay." Maura lifted her head and smiled at Jane. "Should we go back downstairs?"

"Yeah, it's safe now, and we haven't had our cake yet!" She stood up. "Come on, I'm going to eat the slice that says 'Maura.' It'll be symbolic of what I'm gonna do to you later."

Laughing, Maura stood up and took Jane's hand. "Well then I guess I'd better eat the piece that says 'Jane!'"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Oh, Jane." Maura gasped as Jane stepped out of the dressing room in a silk, off-the-shoulders A-line dress with a Guipure lace bodice.

"You like it?" said Jane, looking down at herself uncertainly.

"Jane, you look beautiful," Maura breathed. "I…I think this is the one."

Jane had been trying on dresses for over an hour, and Maura thought she looked good in all of them, but none had grabbed her attention quite like this one. She walked around Jane, checking her out from every angle. The dress was low enough to show her shoulder blades in the back, and it was all Maura could do not to lick them.

"Do you like it?" she asked Jane.

"Well, I…I like the way you're looking at me in it."

Maura impulsively reached for Jane's hair, sweeping it up and then holding it with one hand as she stepped back to look. "Yes, I definitely think you should wear your hair up," she murmured. She let go of Jane's hair and circled her once more, lightly trailing a finger over the olive skin of her shoulders, back, chest.

"Maura," said Jane through her teeth. "We're in a public place."

"Yes, of course," said Maura. She turned to the attendant. "We'll take it," she said.

"Great! I'll get the paperwork together while you change back into your regular clothes," said the attendant, heading for the checkout desk.

"I'll just help you get unzipped," said Maura, following Jane into the dressing room. She locked the door behind them and immediately began running her tongue across Jane's collarbones.

"Maura!" Jane hissed. "We're still kind of in public!"

"No one can see us. You just look…so…sexy…" She planted a line of kisses across Jane's chest and shoulder with each word.

"Mmm. Well I think I know what our wedding night's going to be like. Just don't carry on like this at the reception, okay? Our families are gonna be there."

"I won't. But we are going to have a _lovely_ wedding night." She pushed Jane down into the chair.

"Aren't you going to unzip me?" asked Jane.

"We'll save that for the wedding night." She knelt before Jane.

"Okay, but I do need to get out of the dress."

"In a minute." She lifted Jane's skirt and stuck her head underneath.

"Uh, Maura…"

"I'll only be a minute." She tugged down Jane's panties.

"What happened to saving this for the wedding night?"

" _This_ is just a preview." She dove right in with her tongue, licking and swirling while Jane struggled to control herself, her breathing picking up and then turning to quiet whimpers as Maura guided her up, up…and over the edge.

"It's a damn good thing we're buying this dress," said Jane breathlessly as Maura pushed her panties back up. "We're gonna have to get it cleaned though…"

"Oh, it's fine, just some bodily fluids on the inside. Won't be noticeable."

Jane stood and turned around so Maura could unzip her. "So where are we going to keep it?"

"The dress? It stays here so they can do alterations."

"Alterations? It fits fine."

"It's your _wedding_ dress, Jane. It needs to fit you _perfectly_."

"Fine. So, we still need to find yours."

"I know, but they don't have what I'm looking for here. I need to keep looking." Maura fidgeted with her engagement ring as Jane wriggled out of her dress and back into her jeans and t-shirt. "I have some other boutiques to check out, but you don't have to come with me. It could take a while for me to find exactly what I want."

"You looked stressed about it. Maybe I _should_ come."

"No, it's okay, I'm just worried about not finding what I want. Ever since I was twelve I've imagined getting married in a silk charmeuse dress with an empire waist and a cathedral-length train, but what if I can't find my dream dress? What if they don't make it?" Tears sprang to her eyes, and she felt silly, but all the stress was making her emotional.

"Oh, Maura." Jane hung up the dress and hugged her. "We'll find that exact dress for you somewhere, and if we don't, we'll have it custom-made. I'm gonna make sure you have everything you want."

Maura smiled. "Thank you, Jane."

Jane kissed her. "You'll look perfect. If you think you lost control looking at me in my dress, imagine how I'll feel when I see you wearing yours."

Maura chuckled. "I'll try to find something that affects you the same way."

~R&I~

The engagement changed everything, of course, and knowing Jane was staying in Boston with her made Maura happier than she could say. Still, she missed her horribly at crime scenes. Jane's new job as a victim services coordinator had her working out of a small office at BPD, so she was able to pop into Maura's office from time to time, but she was also on the go a lot. It just wasn't the same as before, but she reminded herself that at least now she could go home to Jane every night and wake up next to her every morning. That thought always made her smile, as well as the thought of Jane in her gorgeous wedding dress, and the way she was going to completely ravish her on their wedding night. Of course, they were doing plenty of that already, but it would be extra special on that night.

She was still thinking about wedding dresses and imagining their wedding night when she parked in the garage at BPD after returning from a crime scene. She got out and walked through the dim garage. She had an appointment on Saturday at a different wedding dress boutique to try on some more dresses. She'd talked to them on the phone, and they had told her they thought they had what she wanted. She sure hoped they would. She wanted to put this behind her, to move on to planning smaller details. The venue and the dresses were the most important things.

And then she saw him: Agent Davies, standing in the parking garage. She was _sure_ it was him this time.

"Maura," he said cordially when he saw her looking at him.

"What…what are you doing here?" she asked him. She suddenly felt frightened, although she wasn't sure why. She wanted Jane.

"I'm in Boston on a case. I dropped by to see Jane, but she was busy."

"Of course, she has a new job now."

"Yes. Strange, isn't it?"

"What's strange?"

"She gave up a job she loved to make a new start in Quantico, and now she's stuck in Boston working as a _victim's advocate._ " He said the words with distaste, as if he couldn't imagine a more boring job.

"It's very important work. She's happy with it. And she's making her new start, right here in Boston."

"Yes…tell me, how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Convince Jane to turn away from a new relationship she was passionate about and marry… _you_. A woman."

"Is that what's bothering you? That she chose a woman over you?"

"I couldn't care less that you're a woman. Jane was in love with _me_. You must have done something. Is it your money?"

"She wasn't in love with you. She barely knew you. And you clearly don't know her if you think my money would make a difference to her. Jane loves me, and now she knows I love her. That's all. You have to just accept that."

She tried to walk past him, but her grabbed her arm. "I know she doesn't want to be with you, and I am not someone you want as your enemy," he hissed.

She narrowed her eyes. "I think Jane can decide for herself what she wants, and I am not that easily intimidated."

She maintained eye contact until he let go of her. Gripping her medical bag, she walked briskly into the building, heading straight to her office, where she sat down and put her head in her hands.

Only then did she notice how badly she was shaking.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Jane was livid.

She had, of course, called the FBI demanding to speak to someone above Davies as soon as Maura told her about him stopping her in the parking garage. The only problem was that there weren't many people above Davies, and the guy she ended up talking to – whose position wasn't entirely clear to her – told her Davies really was in Boston on a case, but that he couldn't disclose more, and he was sure Maura had misinterpreted whatever he said to her. Jane knew better, though. There was something off about this man, and people like him didn't go away quietly. The fact that he was willing to come after Maura was the worst part.

Jane woke early, her head still spinning. She got out of bed so as not to wake Maura, pulled a robe on over her tank top and underwear, and went downstairs to make coffee. Maura appeared almost immediately, a silk robe covering her otherwise naked form.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," said Jane.

"I couldn't sleep either," said Maura, going to the fridge in search of breakfast. "I keep thinking about _him_. I'm afraid he'll come after you."

"I know," said Jane softly. "But he was in the parking garage, waiting for _you_."

"I think I'll park on the street from now on," said Maura, reaching up to get a bowl from the cabinet.

Jane looked at her and frowned. "What is on your arm?"

"What do you mean?" asked Maura, looking down at herself.

Jane stepped forward and lifted the sleeve of Maura's robe a little. There they were: purple bruises, just above her elbow. She lay her fingers lightly on top of them, confirming her suspicions: they were placed exactly where someone's fingers would be if they grabbed her arm. The only thing was, the fingers would have been bigger than Jane's.

"How did you get these bruises?" Jane asked quietly.

"I-I didn't know I had them," Maura said, stumbling over her words.

"You didn't tell me he _grabbed_ you!"

"I didn't want you to worry."

"I'm just gonna call him. This is unacceptable."

"Jane, that would be giving him what he wants! He wants your attention; he wants you to talk to him. Just ignore it, let him see he's not worth your time."

"Maura, I can't just let him by with _bruising_ you! This is not okay! He can't think he can just come here and hurt you and I'm just going to let it slide!"

"It's really not a big deal. He probably didn't even realize he'd grabbed me that hard."

"Oh, yeah, it was just an innocent mistake."

"It doesn't even hurt!" Maura looked a little frantic.

"Maura, why are you downplaying this? Did he – did he threaten you?"

"No." A tear ran down Maura's cheek.

Jane put a hand on Maura's back, rubbing gently. "Honey, you can tell me if he did. I promise I won't let him hurt you."

"He didn't, I just—" Her voice broke. "I just…I didn't want you to…to think that…"

Suddenly it dawned on Jane. "You're afraid I won't want to be with you anymore if I think you're in danger because of me."

Maura nodded. "I can't…I can't go back to the way things used to be. This is all I ever wanted, Jane. I just want to be with you, to marry you. I can't lose this."

"Maura, you won't," Jane promised, wrapping her arms around her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to let this bastard break us up. Now that we're together, there's nothing that can break us up, okay? We are _un_ breakable."

Maura smiled, leaning against Jane. "Good. I couldn't stand it if he got what he wanted."

"Oh, he's not getting anything he wants. We're not breaking up, I'm not getting together with him, I'm not moving to Quantico. If I find out he wants waffles for breakfast, I'm gonna buy every waffle maker in the city just to make sure he can't have them. He's not getting _anything_ he wants!"

Maura laughed, which was always Jane's goal after she saw her shed a tear. Jane lovingly stroked her hair.

"And he's definitely never going to bruise your pretty skin again," Jane promised, bending down to lightly kiss each bruise in turn.

~R&I~

As much as Jane wanted to call Davies and cuss him out for his treatment of Maura, she knew Maura was right that it would be giving him exactly what he wanted. Instead, she went to Nina and asked her to pull up the security camera footage from the parking lot. Maybe she could send that to the FBI so they could see how he grabbed Maura's arm, and then they would take this more seriously.

Unfortunately, the video didn't show Davies at all. It showed Maura stopping and talking to someone, but the person was just off the screen. At one point you could see Maura start to walk away and then stop suddenly, which must have been when he grabbed her, but he was still off camera. A chill went down Jane's spine.

"He did that on purpose," she said. "He knew where the cameras were. He intentionally stayed in the blind spot so we wouldn't be able to prove anything."

"In the old days we could have stretched the film to see things that were just out of view," said Nina. "But now everything's digital. What you see is what you get."

Jane shook her head in disgust. "He knows that. That's the problem." She looked at Nina. "He's FBI. He knows how to get away with whatever he wants."

~R&I~

That weekend, Maura went off in search of her perfect wedding dress, and this time, Hope asked to come with her. Jane didn't want to interfere with what was sure to be another awkward bonding moment, so she stayed home and watched the Sox on TV. The game was just ending when the doorbell rang. She went to answer it, feeling a bit wary, and found her dad on the stoop.

"I didn't know you were still in town," she said irritably.

"I couldn't leave things like they were. Would you…want to come get a bite to eat with me?"

Jane shook her head. "I'm eating with Maura when she gets home."

"Come have a drink with me then."

"Yeah Dad, because you're _so_ much fun when you've been drinking."

"I'll just stick to one. Look, I've pissed everyone in the family off, and I want to make amends. Just give me a chance to make right."

Jane heaved a heavy sigh. After everything he'd said, she wasn't sure how he could possibly make it better, but she didn't like leaving things the way they were either.

"Fine, I'll get my wallet," she said.

She let him pick the bar, promising to hold him to the one-drink rule.

"So help me understand," he said when they had found a private booth. "How did you come to be engaged to a woman?"

Jane shrugged, looking down. "I've been in love with Maura for at least seven years. I've been fighting it the whole time, thinking she'd never feel the same way, but then she told me she did. Once I knew, obviously nothing was going to stop me from being with her. And it's been the most beautiful experience of my whole life. She's my soul mate, Dad. So I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. I want this more than I've ever wanted anything." She looked up and smiled. "We're getting married at Fenway. It's going to be amazing."

"You could have married a guy at Fenway."

"I could have, but he wouldn't have been my soul mate."

"But how can your soul mate be a woman? You've never been into girls."

Jane shook her head, looking down again. "That's not true."

"What do you mean? You've only dated guys before, ever since high school."

"Yeah, Daddy, because I was too afraid to admit what I really wanted. There were girls I had crushes on, but I knew what you and Ma thought of gay people back then, so I told myself it was nothing. I made up every excuse to convince myself I was really straight, that I didn't really like girls that way. I tried to make myself fall in love with one guy and then another. I was even gonna marry Casey. I felt like he was the closest I was ever going to get to having a normal relationship, the kind I thought I was supposed to have. I thought maybe I just needed to jump in there, you know, and the right feelings would come. Looking back I realize how stupid that was, but that was how much I wanted to be straight, to be accepted. And there was also Maura, I mean, I spent years trying to fall out of love with her. You guys really ingrained that stuff in me when I was young, and even though I knew Maura wasn't homophobic at all, I still had it in my head that if she knew I loved her, she'd want nothing to do with me. Turns out, she was in love with me the whole time."

"Janie, we raised you to be a good person. That's all. We wanted you to be a good Catholic. It's not about being homophobic; it's just that you know doing that sort of thing isn't right. It's not what God wants. If you were struggling with those feelings, you should have talked to our priest."

"You also brought me up to believe divorce was wrong. Why didn't you talk to our priest when you started struggling with feelings of ditching the mother of your children for twenty-year-old blonde bimbos?"

He looked affronted. "So that's what this is about? You're getting back at me for leaving?"

" _No_ , Dad. I just think it's a bit hypocritical of you to use the argument that I'm going against the church when _you've_ been going against the church, unapologetically, for years."

"Okay, so I haven't been the best father, the best husband, or the best Catholic. I can admit that. But you're my only daughter, and I just want what's best for you."

"Then you'll want me to marry Maura. I'm nuts about her, Dad, and she loves me more than anyone else ever has."

"Hold that thought," said Frank, looking towards the door. "There's someone here to talk to you."

"What?" Jane whirled around to see Casey coming towards them. "Oh no," she said, abruptly standing up. "I am _not_ talking to him."

"Jane, I know we didn't leave things in a good place," said Casey, approaching the table. "But could you just hear me out? I want to apologize for my overreaction."

"Overreaction? The correct response to my news would have been, 'That's great, I'm so happy for you and Maura!' Instead you went with, 'You're ruining my life, now everyone's going to think I have a tiny dick.'"

She thought she detected a slight cringe on Casey's face, but he controlled himself. "I realize it was inappropriate. I ran into your dad yesterday, and I told him what happened and what I really meant to tell you. He asked me to meet him here so I could say my piece. I promise, it's nothing against your engagement. There was just something I wanted to tell you."

Heaving a sigh, Jane lowered herself back down into the booth. "You'd better talk fast," she said, taking a swig of her beer.

Casey nodded, sitting down beside Frank. "Listen, Jane, I retired from active duty and came back to Boston because I was hoping you and I could get back together."

Jane tensed. "How is this _not_ against my engagement?"

"Just listen. What I did was a mistake. I told you I was leaving the army for you, and I should have followed through. We should be married by now, raising our child."

"I'm sure I would have lost the baby either way," said Jane. "Unless your plan was to make me leave my job."

"It would have been different, if we'd been together. I think you would have been more careful. It was just hard for you being pregnant and alone."

Jane shook her head. "I wasn't alone. I had Maura. She was the one who took me to all my appointments, who made sure I took all the right prenatal vitamins. She started a college fund for the baby. There's no question; we would have raised that kid together, she and I. She was devastated when we lost that baby."

Casey looked taken aback, but he persevered. "Nevertheless, it's clear to me that we were always meant to be together. You're my soul mate, Jane. I've always believed that. When you broke up with me, I was crushed, but I always believed we'd be together again someday. I knew it in my heart. I came back here ready to be the man you deserved, so we could finally get married and have children. I'm here to stay this time. I bought an apartment in a triple-decker down in Dorchester, near the water, just like we talked about. You'd love it. It has three bedrooms, beautiful hardwood floors—"

"Are you serious?" asked Jane. "You went and bought me a house? I think you might have had a little too much confidence in your ability to win me back."

"Janie, just give the guy a chance," said Frank. "This is the man of your dreams, the man you wanted to marry, and he's telling you he wants you back. You don't have to do this thing with your friend."

"Okay, let's get a couple things clear," said Jane harshly. " _First_ of all, Casey, I would have no desire to get back together with you even if I didn't have Maura. After you pulled that whole bait-and-switch thing where you promised to leave the army if I married you and then reenlisted the second I said yes, there was zero chance of me ever trusting you again. But I've always been grateful that you did pull that shit on me, because it saved us both from what I'm sure would have been a very unhappy marriage. I was hoping against hope that you would want nothing to do with my child so I could raise the kid with Maura's help and never have to see you, ever again. And _secondly,_ let me tell you something about Maura, since you both seem to see her as my last resort. She is the sweetest, most loving, most generous, smartest, most incredible human being I've ever know in my life. From the moment I met her, I've been so honored just to know her. She has never stopped amazing me. When you proposed to me, Casey, she cried when I told her. I thought it was because she was afraid I'd move away, but if I'd known it was because she wanted to be the one marrying me, I'd have taken the ring off in a heartbeat. To know that this beautiful, amazing person loves me and wants to spend the rest of her life with me is the greatest honor I have ever received. There isn't anything either of you can say that would make me change my mind. I don't care if you're embarrassed to tell your friends your daughter is a lesbian," she said to her dad, "or if your soldier buddies all think you have a tiny dick now. I really don't give a fuck."

And with that, she got up and stormed out of the bar, leaving the men to cover her tab.

~R&I~

When she got home, Maura was still out, but her mother was home, puttering around the kitchen.

"Hey, Ma," said Jane, collapsing onto the couch.

"Hey. Why do you look so weary?"

"I just feel like everyone in the world is conspiring against me, trying to keep me from marrying the woman I love."

Angela came over to the couch and sat down next to her daughter. "What happened?"

"Dad insisted on taking me out for a drink, and then he had Casey meet us. They made a ridiculous attempt to talk me into marrying Casey instead of Maura. Dad says you raised me better than this."

"You can't listen to that old geezer. He's not keeping up with the times."

Jane smiled slightly. "Be honest. Does it bother you, that I didn't turn out the way you thought I would?"

"No, baby." She put her arm around Jane. "Maybe if you'd sprung it on me out of nowhere…but I wondered about you and Maura for years. I kept thinking I was imagining it, but you two seemed so in _love_. You have this connection that's so rare. And yes, I always imagined you finding a loving husband someday, but I also told myself that if you and Maura did come out, I was going to accept it. At the end of the day, Jane, all I really want is for you to be happy. I know that Maura makes you happy."

Jane nodded, blinking back tears. "She does."

"And anyway, Dear Abby always says that people can't help being gay, that it's just the way God made them, and the leader of my PFLAG group says so too."

Jane looked at her. "You joined PFLAG?"

"Well yes, I thought I should. It's for parents, family, and friends of lesbians and gays. That applies to me now."

Jane couldn't help laughing at her parents' opposing reactions, but just then, the front door flew open and Maura rushed in.

"I found it!" she shouted excitedly. "I found my dress!"

"All right! Let's see it!" Jane exclaimed.

Maura smiled mysteriously and shook her head.

"Why can't I see it?" said Jane. "Don't you have a picture?"

"I do, but I want to surprise you. I want you to see if for the first time when I come down the aisle on our wedding day."

"Seriously? You've already seen mine!"

"Yes, but that was out of necessity. I had to help you choose yours."

"Because you couldn't trust me to pick out my own?"

"Well, it's not…it's not that you have a bad sense of fashion, per se, but…"

Jane stood up and kissed her cheek, stopping her before she could dig her hole any deeper. "It's a good thing you're cute."

"Can _I_ see the dress?" asked Angela.

"Of course!" said Maura. "Hope took pictures of me when I tried it on." She sat on the couch next to Angela and pulled out her phone, flipping through several pictures.

"That's not fair," griped Jane. "Why does _she_ get to see?"

"She's not the one I want to surprise," said Maura.

"Oh, that is darling!" exclaimed Angela. "Jane, you'll love it. She's going to be _such_ a beautiful bride!"

"Well, I already know it's going to be silk chartreuse with an emperor waist and a really long train," said Jane.

Maura giggled. "Silk _charmeuse_ , with an _empire_ waist, which means a high waist. The color is ivory, like yours, and it has intricate beadwork on the bodice."

"Sleeves or straps?"

"Neither."

"Ooo." Jane smiled to herself at the image of Maura's bare shoulders in her strapless dress. She had no doubt that she would be absolutely breathtaking.

"Oh, and there's a matching veil," Maura told Angela, showing her on the phone. Jane chuckled to herself as she watched them. Maybe not everyone was in her corner, but absolutely nothing was going to stop her and Maura from having their dream wedding and, more importantly, spending the rest of their lives together.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Maura looked at herself in the mirror as she applied her lipstick, a shade she'd chosen to go with the red dress she was wearing, which she had chosen to match Jane's Red Sox jersey. Yes, Maura was going to look a tad overdressed next to Jane, but she was used to it, and this was their engagement photo shoot. She was dressing up for this no matter what Jane did.

"You look beautiful," said Jane's voice behind her. Maura turned around and smiled. Jane was wearing her nicest jeans with the Red Sox jersey, as well as a matching baseball cap. Her ruby ring matched perfectly. "You're not wearing that hat in the pictures, are you?" asked Maura in dismay. "No one will be able to see your face."

"Can't I wear it in a few pictures?"

"I suppose," said Maura begrudgingly. "What's that in your hand?"

Jane bit her lip, looking down at the paper she was holding. "Something that came in the mail I've been nervous about showing you."

"Why would you be nervous?" asked Maura, suddenly very concerned with seeing the paper. "Just show me."

Jane handed it over, and Maura skimmed over the words. It appeared to be an acceptance letter.

"You got into BCU's criminal justice program? I didn't even know you were applying!"

Jane nodded. "Looks like I'm going to BCU after all. I mean, if I do go. I wanted to talk to you about it, but every time I tried, I suddenly felt silly. I mean, I don't know, going back to school at my age and everything…"

"It's not silly at all, but what made you want a degree right now? Have you made a decision about your next career move?"

"Well, I just thought, I love what I'm doing now, but I still miss being a cop. I loved it like crazy, you know? It was what I wanted to do until I retired. I just wanted to stay right where I was, as a homicide detective, forever. But then, everyone else started changing, and it felt like…well, to make a long story short, I think maybe the answer wasn't to stop being a cop. I think maybe I just needed to give myself room to grow in that position, instead of just doing the same exact thing until retirement, you know? I'm turning forty this year. Taking on all the most dangerous assignments is going to get harder, and I have someone to come home to now. So I think maybe it's time to look at moving up through the ranks, so I can keep doing what I love, but in a more 'grown-up' way now."

"So you're coming back to the force?" Maura asked cautiously, afraid to get too excited for fear she might have misunderstood.

"I haven't said yes yet, but Cavanaugh's been bugging me about it ever since he heard I was back in Boston. Why hire someone new, he says, when I'm right here, and he knows I'm good. And he's planning to retire in a few years, so…"

"So you're planning to get a degree so you can qualify as a lieutenant by then."

Jane nodded. "The department's always willing to work with cops who are going back to school for related degrees. They'd be willing to scale back my hours, not send me on any stake-outs, so I can have time for classes and homework. And I can finally go to BCU. Won't be the same, but…"

"Oh, Jane, I'm so proud of you!" Maura jumped up and threw her arms around Jane. "You'll love BCU, I know you will!" She kissed her. "So we'll work together again?"

"It's not official yet, but, yeah, we will."

"But no undercover operations in prisons?"

Jane chuckled. "There are always younger cops who are eager to prove themselves. Maybe I should let them have a chance. I think I've already proven myself, don't you?"

"Many times over!" She kissed Jane's cheek, leaving behind a red lipstick print. "I can't wait for you to become Lieutenant Rizzoli! I've never had sex with a _lieutenant_ before."

"Well, first I have to work on becoming _Sergeant_ Rizzoli."

"I've never had sex with a sergeant before either!"

"I still have to take the test."

"You'll do great. I'll help you study." Maura kissed her again, her heart nearly bursting with pride. "You'd better tell BCU you're attending so they keep your spot, and tell Cavanaugh you're coming back."

"I will, on Monday. Right now we need to get to Fenway for our glamourous photo shoot."

"Oh, let me wipe my lip print off your face."

Jane looked at herself in the mirror. "Nah, leave it. I kind of like it." She smiled at Maura. "We can show everyone that you can't keep your hands, or your mouth, off of me."

~R&I~

"I'm so proud of the way you've been figuring out your life the past few months," Maura said as they parked outside of Fenway. "A year ago you didn't even have a permanent place to live, and now look at you. You're advancing your career and your education, and you're even getting married!"

"You say this as if I'm marrying some random person who isn't you."

"Well, I'm excited for both of us. But admitting your feelings for me was a big step for you!"

"Yeah, it was. But now that I'm having great sex every night and having a photo shoot at Fenway, I'm wondering what the hell took me so long." She turned to Maura. "You really don't mind me going back to school at BCU? The tuition's really expensive."

"It's money well spent." Maura kissed her. "And it's _our_ money now. Don't think of it as me sending you to college, although I would be happy to."

Jane smiled. "Well, if you've always wanted to get it on with a hot college girl, now's your chance."

"I do now!" Maura kissed her. "I know a lot of people at BCU. You know I could have helped you get in."

"I know, but I wanted to do it on my own."

"And you did, which is why I'm so proud."

They got out of the car and made their way into the empty stadium. An employee met them and helped them set up the Green Monster scoreboard with their names and the wedding date while they waited for the photographer.

"It's so weird being in the park when it's empty," Jane remarked as they waited.

"I'm going to choose one of the pictures of us in front of the scoreboard for our save the date magnet," Maura told her. "That way, we won't have to print anything on the magnet. All the information will already be in the picture!"

"Uh huh. And just what is a 'save the date magnet?'"

"Well, some people just send cards. You send them well ahead of the invitations, and they just announce the date of your upcoming wedding, so they know to keep the date clear. But I thought it would be more fun to send magnets! Then everyone will have a picture of us on their refrigerators, and it will be a constant reminder of our upcoming wedding! Closer to the date, we'll send real invitations, which will have more details."

"I kinda like the idea of being on people's refrigerators."

Maura looked at her watch. "The photographer was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. I'm going to call her."

"She's probably just stuck in traffic," Jane said, but Maura called anyway. The photographer answered, sounding a bit annoyed. Maura expressed concern over her being late to their session, and annoyance quickly turned to shock.

"You cancelled the session," the photographer insisted.

"What? No, I didn't! My fiancée and I are here, dressed for a photo shoot. We've got everything ready. You called me just yesterday to confirm!"

"Yes, which is why I was surprised when I got an email from you this morning saying that the wedding was off and you were cancelling the shoot. I emailed back and asked if you understood that the deposit was non-refundable, and you said you understood."

"That wasn't me! I don't know who you got an email from, but the wedding is very much on, and we're waiting to have our picture taken."

There was a pause. "I can be there in twenty minutes. Is that all right?"

"Yes, of course." Maura hung up the phone. "She got an email she thought was from me saying we had called off the wedding. Who would do something like that?"

Jane frowned. "My first guess would be my dad, but he barely knows how to use email."

"Jane, do you think someone hacked into my account? I've emailed her before. She wouldn't have thought it was from me unless it was the same address! What if someone's trying to sabotage our whole wedding?" She could feel her breathing and heart rate speed up as she considered the disturbing possibilities.

"Hey, we'll worry about it later, okay? Right now we're going to do our photo shoot, and we're going to have fun, and you're going to get your save the date magnets, okay? Everything will be perfect. _No one_ is going to ruin our wedding."

Maura nodded uncertainly, trying to slow her breathing down. The photographer arrived a bit later, looking harried, and the shoot got off to a tense start. But Jane made a few jokes to lighten the mood, and once Maura laughed a bit, she was able to relax and have fun. They posed in front of the old score board, by home plate, in the stands, next to a mural from 1912, and in the spot where they would take their vows: on a big wooden platform that said _FENWAY PARK_ on it. For a while, Maura forgot about the fact that someone had tried to prevent this from happening, and just enjoyed herself. When the shoot was finished, they confirmed their upcoming beach shoot with the photographer, who promised not to accept any more email cancellations.

"Can I see the email you got?" Maura asked her.

"Yeah, of course," she said, taking out her phone. "Here it is. Drmiles ."

Maura looked at it carefully. "That's actually a letter off from my email," she said. "Mine is DrMIsles . They left out an S."

"Oh, you're right. I'm so sorry. I should have realized it wasn't you."

"No, it's okay, anyone would have thought it was me." She turned to Jane. "So no one hacked my email, but they must have known what my email was."

"Dad could have done it then, except he wouldn't know your email address."

"As far as we know." Maura frowned, taking out her own phone. Three new voicemails. Concerned, she hit play.

When she'd finished listening, she turned around to Jane, her face pale. "That was both dress shops, our caterer, and the band for our reception. They all said they got emails from me saying the wedding had been called off, and wanted to confirm with me make sure I understood the deposits are not refundable."

"Okay, well, call them all back and tell them it's not off," Jane told her. "We'll tell everyone from now on not to accept any email communication from us. Nothing's getting cancelled."

"I will," said Maura. "But Jane, we need to accept that _someone_ is actively trying to stop us from getting married!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Jane rolled over in bed and reached out for Maura, but all she found was empty space. Her eyes flew open. In just a few months' time, she'd gotten used to waking up with Maura next to her; in fact, usually the blonde was wrapped around her as if afraid of letting her get away. Waking up to find her missing was…unsettling. Very unsettling.

"Maura?" Jane called, rolling out of bed. "Maura!"

"Jane!" She could hear footsteps running towards the stairs. "Jane, I've made you breakfast!"

"Oh really?" Relief washing over her, Jane started down the stairs, unable to keep from smiling.

"Yes! It's your first day back at BPD. I wanted to get you off to a good start."

Jane looked at the dining table and saw a big bouquet of flowers in the middle. There were two plates set out, a bowl of fruit, a stack of pancakes, and a plate of bacon.

"Did you really make bacon?" asked Jane in disbelief.

"Yes! Eggs are almost ready."

"But you hate bacon."

"And you love it! It's a special occasion. Coffee's ready. I made your favorite!"

Jane's eyebrows raised as she went to get her coffee. "You have been _spoiling_ me ever since—"

"Ever since you became mine to spoil."

Jane looked at her. "I always thought, if we got together, that I'd be the one spoiling you."

"And you do! You remembered things I said a long time ago about the perfect proposal, and then you made it happen for me, and you made it so much better than anything I had ever imagined. But, I can still spoil you too."

Jane paused to kiss her fiancée on her way back to the table. The kiss lasted longer than she'd planned, but she just didn't want to pull away, and Maura didn't seem to either. There had been too many kisses lost between them for them not to savor each one they had now.

"I just love you so much," Jane whispered when they finally broke apart.

"I love you so much too," said Maura, smiling. "You have no idea how much I look forward to every new day now, knowing I get to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Oh, I think I have an idea," said Jane.

Maura grinned. "So what are you going to wear for your first day back?"

"Um, the same sort of clothes I wore to work before?"

"Okay, maybe for today, but don't you think, since you're making a new start, that you should mix up your wardrobe a little? I could take you shopping."

"Well, I think I still have the fringe jacket somewhere."

Maura looked at her.

Jane looked back.

"I just meant—"

"I kind of miss wearing it, actually."

Maura sighed. "Fine, I won't take you shopping, for now. But when you make sergeant—"

"Then I'll _definitely_ break out the jacket!"

Maura raised her brows. "I think you'll find I'll have burned it by then."

~R&I~

Jane wished she'd known ages again how easy it could be to make Maura positively ecstatic. Ever since she'd had the brilliant idea of accompanying Maura to Paris, she felt like she was on fire, that every decision she made only added to Maura's overwhelming happiness. She seemed to be loving every second of Jane living with her, she was incredibly excited about the wedding (minus the sabotage attempts), and she was positively thrilled to be working with Jane again. She chattered excitedly as they drove to the station, and then she insisted on walking Jane up to her desk.

"Are you going to walk me into class my first day at BCU as well?" Jane asked her warily.

"Of course not!" said Maura indignantly. "I just can't wait to see you at your desk again! The second I get results, I'm bringing them right up here to show you!"

"I don't have a case yet," Jane pointed out.

"Oh, you'll get one!" said Maura excitedly. "Someone could be getting murdered as we speak!"

"You're not supposed to be happy about that," Jane informed her.

"Sorry," said Maura, attempting to hide her smile. It was pretty fucking adorable.

There was applause as Jane walked into the squad room, and she made a big show of being embarrassed, but she secretly loved it. She sat down at her desk so Maura could see her, and then Maura kissed her goodbye and said she'd let her get to work.

"It is good to have you back," Frankie told her, "even if it does mean I have to be the 'other Rizzoli' again."

"It feels weird," Jane admitted. "It feels like…it feels like I never left."

"Well, should be easy for you to get settled back in," he told her.

"Yeah." She booted up her computer, and then a man came in carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Delivery for Jane Rizzoli," he said.

"Interesting." She took the flowers and removed the card.

 _My sweet Jane,_

 _Welcome back to BPD! I can't wait to solve more murders with you, and I look forward to watching you grow in your career! I'm so proud of you!_

 _Love, Maura_

 _P.S. I hope to celebrate your successful first day at home tonight… xx_

Jane chuckled, setting the flowers down on her desk. "I think I've officially made Maura the happiest woman alive," she remarked.

But she knew that wasn't entirely true. There was no way Maura was happier than Jane was.

~R&I~

Jane got her first call later that morning, and she had to admit, she was pretty excited about it. Maura kept looking up from the dead body to grin at her, which really confused the owner of the store the dead body had turned up behind. When they got back to the station, Jane watched Maura begin the autopsy, and it felt just like old times. The only difference was that now their conversation was peppered with Maura's honeymoon plans (she was currently working on their itinerary for Greece), and the sexual tension Jane had tried to ignore in the past was gone. Why be tense when you knew the day would end with some good old-fashioned shagging? And it was going to be hot, because it always was with Maura. _Damn_ , she loved that woman.

"Well, gotta jet!" Jane told Frankie when five o'clock rolled around.

"Are you coming to the Robber tonight?" he asked her.

"Nah, not tonight. Just gonna go home with Maura."

"Yeah, it's different when you have someone to go home to."

"Yeah." Jane smiled and headed to the elevators, checking her phone. There were two new messages.

One was from Maura, in response to Jane saying she was ready to go. It just said, _I'll meet you at the front door!_

The other was from a number she didn't recognize, although it had a local area code. This was a bit different from Maura's chipper text:

 _I won't let you marry her._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Maura was waiting happily by the door when Jane came barreling out of the elevator.

"Jane!" she said. "How was your first day back?"

"It was – it was good," said Jane, slowing to a walk. When she got to Maura, she wrapped her in a hug.

"Is something wrong?" Maura asked.

"I, um…I just got a weird text." She took out her phone and showed the text to Maura.

"Have you had it traced?" asked Maura.

"Not yet. I wanted to make sure you were okay first."

Maura nodded. "Well, I'm fine, so I think we should go see Nina."

But Nina wasn't able to help them much. She tried triangulating the number, but the phone appeared to be turned off.

"I can keep trying," Nina offered. "Maybe they'll turn it back on later."

"You can try, but I bet it's a burner phone," sighed Jane.

"Well, we're not giving up that easily," Nina said. "We can check with the carrier and try to figure out who bought the phone."

"Or, if it's a fake number…"

"We'll try everything we can," Nina insisted. "In the meantime, you two might as well go home and relax."

"I agree," said Maura. "It's your first day back, Jane. You're not putting in overtime already."

"Okay, but I'm considering this text to be a threat," said Jane, looking at Maura. "That means _you_ are sticking close to me until we figure out who sent it."

Maura snuggled up to her. "I don't think that will be a problem."

~R&I~

"Well, that's one wedding down," Jane said in relief as they walked into the dark house.

"It was a lovely wedding," Maura said. "It sounds selfish, but I'm glad Frankie and Nina are married now so the whole family can focus on planning _our_ wedding."

"It _was_ a bit much having two in the works at once," Jane agreed, pausing to admire the save-the-date magnet that was now stuck to the dishwasher, showing the picture of Jane and Maura posing happily before the Green Monster. Everyone who would be invited to the wedding had one of these now. The wedding was very much on, in spite of what the anonymous texter said.

They had both received several more messages over a period of several weeks, each from a different number but always in the same vein: their wedding couldn't happen. They would be sorry if they continued. None of the numbers were traceable, so eventually, Jane and Maura just changed their own numbers. Things had been quiet since then, but Maura knew it wouldn't really be over until they determined who was behind it. She hoped that would be soon. Nothing was going to stop her from marrying Jane, of that she was quite determined, but she wanted to be able to plan it without having to look over her shoulder.

For tonight, however, there were more important things to focus on; namely, that Jane was looking incredibly sexy. Frankie had gotten married in his uniform, at Nina's request, and Jane had worn hers as well since she was standing up with him. It had been years since Maura had seen Jane in uniform. Her old one had, of course, burned in her apartment fire, but the new one was just like it. And Maura had to admit, she loved a woman in uniform.

"Well, I can't wait to get out of this uniform," Jane mumbled, heading towards the stairs.

"Wait," commanded Maura. "You can't take it off yet!"

"Oh?" Jane turned to face her. "And why not?"

"I'm not ready!" Maura stepped closer to her fiancée. "I've been admiring you in that uniform all night. I'm not letting another opportunity slip away from me."

" _Another_ opportunity?"

Maura nodded. "I thought you were very sexy in your uniform at the awards ceremony six years ago, but I didn't feel I could act on my thoughts then."

"You _were_ pretty anxious to get me into the uniform that night," Jane recalled. "You tackled me on the couch and ripped my sweat clothes off. I was astounded. I didn't know you had so much…strength."

Maura smiled. "You shouldn't have underestimated me."

"Of course, I was recovering from a gunshot wound at the time. If you'd tried that when I was at full strength—"

"I still would have won," laughed Maura. "I usually do get my way with you. But right now, I want _you_ to have your way with _me_." Closing the gap between them, she wrapped her arms around Jane's neck and kissed her deeply. Jane's hands slid down her back onto her rear end, and Maura moaned. "Jane," she whispered. "Take me on the couch."

"Mmm." Jane tightened her grip and lifted Maura up. Maura wrapped her legs around her waist. Jane made another noise, one that might have signified pain.

"Are you okay?" Maura asked her.

"Yeah, I've got this. To the couch!"

Jane slowly made her way to the couch carrying a very turned-on Maura. Maura held tight to her fiancée, pressing kisses to her face and inhaling the fruity scent of her hair. She remembered Ian carrying her like this once, but this was better. Jane was _so_ much sexier.

Jane lay Maura down on the couch and leaned over her, covering her face and neck with kisses. Maura closed her eyes for a moment and pretended they were in Jane's old apartment. She tried to imagine how it would have gone, if Byron and Casey hadn't been there. Perhaps Maura would have taken Jane home after the explosion, both of them frightened by how close they had been, and with that fresh reminder of the fragility of life so close at hand, Jane would have decided to just ravish Maura right there on the couch. She opened her eyes. There was Jane, just as beautiful as she'd been six years ago, fumbling around for Maura's zipper. Finding it, she quickly divested Maura of her dress, then made short work of her underthings. Maura made no effort to remove Jane's uniform – that would be staying on as long as possible – but she did take the pins out of her hair, letting her raven curls loose. _There_ , she thought. _Now she looks perfect_.

Jane took one of Maura's nipples into her mouth, but Maura didn't have much time for foreplay. She'd been looking at Jane all night, feeling the blood flow to her genitals increase, feeling herself become wet. A few hours of watching Jane in that uniform was all the foreplay she really needed.

"Sit up," she told Jane.

"Mm, okay," said Jane uncertainly, pushing herself up.

"Just sit normally, feet on the floor," Maura told her, climbing into her lap. "Hips forward a bit…there." Now she could easily wrap her naked body around Jane.

"This is…actually pretty hot," admitted Jane. "There's something about you being naked while I'm still—"

" _Yes_." Maura captured her lips, her fingers roaming to touch the patches on Jane's sleeves, the little BPD pins on her lapels, the replacement medal and badge on her chest. "I'm so glad you went back to the force."

"Me too," said Jane, her hands caressing Maura's bare flesh. "Apparently it's the way to get the hot girls."

"Mm. I need you inside me."

Jane looked at her, eyes dark with desire. "Okay," she whispered, her left hand moving over Maura's thigh and towards her center. She wet her fingers, stroking Maura's clit at she did so, and Maura let out a whimper.

"Please, Jane, I need you now," she breathed.

She didn't have to tell her again. She closed her eyes as she felt Jane's fingers enter, rocking her hips forward to take her in nice and deep. Soon Jane was hitting just the right spot and they were getting into the perfect rhythm. Maura reveled in the feeling of her body wrapped around Jane, and Jane inside of her, until she crested to the top of another beautiful Jane-induced orgasm.

"Jane," Maura sighed as she collapsed against the woman she loved, panting. "I love you so much. You are the sexiest woman alive."

"I would beg to differ with that," said Jane, idly playing with Maura's breast. "Having you wrapped around me is by far the hottest thing I've ever experienced."

"It feels a little unreal. I thought I was losing you, but now I have you in ways I could only dream about before."

"You would never have lost me. I would have called every day, and I would have visited. And you would have."

"I know, but it wouldn't be the same. I need to see you, to touch you, every day."

"Well, now you don't have to worry. Wherever you are, that's where I'll be, for the rest of my life." She lowered her voice. "And you can touch me wherever you want."

Maura giggled. "Maybe we should continue this upstairs." She rolled off Jane's lap and put her dress back on, zipping it only partway. She gathered her discarded bra and panties, looked up, and screamed.

"Maura! What's wrong?" asked Jane, whirling around.

"I saw…I thought I saw…someone outside the back door."

"Better not be some perv watching me fuck you." Jane glanced towards the door, but there was no one visible now. "Okay, let me get my gun. I'll go check."

Maura waited anxiously, suddenly feeling very nervous. There wasn't much light inside, and she hadn't seen anything unusual at the back door before that moment, so she didn't think anyone had been watching them have sex. She wasn't even positive someone was there. Maybe it was just a shadow being cast by a tree or something? She hoped so, especially now that Jane was out there.

Jane came back a minute later, shaking her head. "I don't see anyone."

"Maybe it was my imagination," said Maura, but she couldn't resist running forward to hug Jane.

"Hey, sweetie, it's okay. Even if some creep did show up, I wouldn't let them hurt you."

"I don't want anyone hurting _you_ either."

"Nah, I wouldn't let that happen. Not now that I'm finally with you."

Just then, the door opened, and Maura screamed again. Jane let go of her and grabbed her gun.

"Whoa, why are you pointing a gun at me?" shouted Angela.

"Geez, Ma, don't you ever knock?" griped Jane, lowering her gun. "Maura just thought she saw someone looking in the window, so I grab my gun to go see, I tell her it's clear, and then _you_ pop up."

"Oh, well it might have been me. I looked in on my way to the guest house. I was trying to figure out if you two were still up, but I couldn't see anything. I can't find my regular purse, because I took my fancy purse to the wedding, but now I'm not sure where I left the regular one. So I checked the guest house, but I didn't see it, so I decided to just sneak in and look. I thought you'd gone to bed or something."

Maura looked around, covertly dropping her underwear behind a couch cushion. "It's here, on the counter," she said.

"Oh, great, thanks Maura," said Angela, rushing forwards to grab the purse. "I'll just be out of your way."

As she hurried out the door, the two women looked at each other and then began to laugh.

"You know," said Maura, "if I'd known you would be moving in, I don't think I would have talked her out of moving out."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

"Five months from today is our wedding day," said Maura, looking at the calendar. "And we're actually ahead of schedule with the planning."

"Woohoo!" shouted Jane. "Does that mean we can take a break from planning?"

"Not if we want to _stay_ ahead of schedule," said Maura with a smile. "But Christmas is next month, so I suppose we can focus on planning that for a while and let the wedding stuff take a back seat."

"Good." Jane wrapped her arms around her beautiful fiancée from behind and kissed her cheek. "It's going to be the best Christmas ever. I am going to buy you so many presents."

Maura leaned back into her embrace. "I've already started shopping for you. You're going to love it."

"And then, when we've opened all the presents and stuffed our faces and everyone else is gone, we're going to go up to our bed and show each other the true meaning of Christmas."

Maura laughed. "Is the true meaning of Christmas sex?"

"Well, it's love, so a few hours of hot lovin' seems like a good way to celebrate."

"I'm always ready for that with you." Maura turned and kissed Jane. "Speaking of which, are you ready to study for your big test?"

Jane sighed. "I guess. I admit I'm interested in finding out what your special new study method will be."

Maura smiled enigmatically. "Go up to the bedroom. I'll be there in a moment."

Raising her eyebrows, Jane turned and walked upstairs, wondering what Maura had up her sleeve. Jane had been stressing out over her upcoming criminology test, as she'd only gotten a D on her last test. She needed an A on this one to bring her grade up in the class, and Maura had promised to find a way to make studying fun for her and hopefully help the information stick. Jane hoped she was right on both counts. There was so much fucking terminology to learn for this course, stuff that felt useless after years of actually being out in the field. So many theories on why crime happened and how to stop it, theories she was pretty sure had been developed by people with no practical experience. For someone who was used to learning by doing, it was really hard to keep all this in her brain.

As she waited in the bedroom (a promising location for a "fun" study session, to be sure), Jane picked up Maura's book from the nightstand. She had just gotten the galley, or proof, of her book, which meant that it looked the way it was going to look when it was published, but she needed to go through it first to make sure there were no errors. She knew how excited Maura was to have gotten it, and she also knew she could be spending the evening reading through it instead of helping Jane study. Jane had certainly better ace that test to make it worth her time.

"All right," said Maura, coming into the bedroom carrying a trench coat and hat. "Shall we begin?"

"Uh, sure?" said Jane. "One question. Why did you bring your coat and hat? Is there a rainstorm coming? In the bedroom?"

Maura smiled. "Well, here's the plan." She put a stack of cards in front of Jane, sitting down on the bed. "I read you a question from one of these flashcards. If you get it right, I take off an article of clothing. If you get it wrong, I put an article of clothing back on and the card goes to the bottom of the stack. We keep going until you get everything right."

"So the coat and hat…"

"Those are for if you get the first questions wrong. But hopefully you get me naked quickly."

"Okay, so it's a little like strip poker. What happens when I get you naked naked?"

"Then _you_ start taking clothes off."

"And then?"

"Once we're both naked, when you get questions right, we get to take turns rolling the sex dice."

"The…the what?"

"I bought them especially for your studying." She pulled a pair of dice out of her pocket and put them on the bed. Jane picked them up. One had words like _touch_ and _suck_ , while the other had words like _breast_ and _below waist_.

"Okay, I think I've seen these before," said Jane. "Never used them though. What's to stop us from getting carried away and forgetting about studying?"

Maura set her phone down on the bed next to the dice. "We only get 30 seconds to do each action. When the timer goes off, we go on to the next question."

Jane smiled slowly. "And when I can answer all the questions correctly?"

Maura tilted her head. "Then we do whatever we like."

"Okay," said Jane. "I can get into this kind of studying."

"I only hope it helps you make associations that help you remember the terms."

"I'm willing to try," said Jane. "Hit me up."

Maura picked up a card and cleared her throat. "Okay, what are the stable patterns of behavior that distinguish one person from another?"

"Easy. Personality!" said Jane.

"Very good!" said Maura, removing a sock.

"That's it? A sock?"

"I have 50 flash cards!"

"Fine, read the next question."

"A crime that has little or no long-term effect on the perpetrator."

"Um, that's some kind of deviation…it's um…"

Maura reached for her sock.

"No! No! You can't take this foot away from me!" Jane grabbed Maura's bare foot desperately. "I deserve this foot, because I know that a personality is the stable thing that makes a person different from another person!"

"Can you answer the question?"

"No, but I earned this foot!"

"Fine." Maura picked up her rain hat and put it on her head, pulling it down so that her eyes were barely visible. "The answer is primary deviance." She put the card on the bottom of the stack.

"The instructor is so boring! You have no idea! He's like 200 years old and all he does is stand at the front of the classroom droning on and on. It's all I can do to stay awake!"

"Well, that's why I'm helping you now," said Maura from under her hat. "What do you call programs to treat problems before they become criminal?"

"Um, some kind of prevention…" _Damn it, I'm never going to get her naked at this rate_ , Jane thought. She wracked her brain. "Primary! Primary prevention!"

Smiling, Maura took the hat back off.

And so it went on, with Maura removing articles of clothing and then putting some back on. The worst was when Maura took her bra off and then Jane got the next question wrong, so she put it back on even though Jane begged her not to. But then Jane got the next one right, and the next one, and then Maura was naked. Soon Jane was naked too, and it was time to break out the sex dice. Jane was glad. Looking at Maura's nudity and not being able to touch her was extremely painful.

"Okay, if you get this right, I'll let you take the first roll," Maura said cheerfully when Jane had removed her last piece of clothing. "What do you call an innate tendency to engage in a particular pattern or type of behavior?"

"Propensity!" Jane shouted victoriously.

"Very good!" laughed Maura, handing her the dice.

"I have a propensity towards wanting to do dirty things to you," said Jane, shaking the dice before dropping them onto the mattress. "Lick boobies! Get ready, I'm coming in!"

"Let me set the timer," said Maura, holding up a finger. "Okay, go."

So Jane began sliding her tongue around one large, soft, absolutely perfect tit and then the other, until the stupid timer went off and she had to quit.

"I like sexy time better without the timer," she grumbled.

"Of course," said Maura. "But do you like study time better without all of this?" She motioned towards her glorious naked body.

"No," Jane said quickly. "Next question!"

"A method of crime prevention intended to reduce particular crimes in certain settings."

Jane chewed her lip. "Situational crime prevention?"

"Yes!" said Maura brightly. She rolled the dice. "Oo, I get to fondle your breasts."

"Have at it," said Jane.

Maura, rarely one to break the rules, set her timer and reached for Jane's breasts. "Hopefully when you take the test and see the words 'situational crime prevention,' you'll think of me fondling your breasts and remember what it means," she said conversationally as she rolled Jane's nipples with her thumbs.

"Well, your playing with my boobs is a method of preventing me from committing the particular crime of bombing my test in the particular setting of my criminology class."

"Very good! This was what I meant about forming associations!" The timer went off, and Maura picked up another card. "Okay, what is the theory that states that crime is the result of negative interactions between people and social institutions?"

"Social…social process theory! Give me those dice!" Jane rolled. "I get to nibble your neck. That's not quite as exciting as last time."

"You have to do what the dice say!" said Maura, turning the timer on.

"Come here then. I vant to suck your blood!"

Maura giggled as Jane nibbled away. Jane had to admit, this was by far the most exciting study session of her entire life.

"If we get to study like this every time, I'm going to start looking forward to tests," she said after the timer had gone off.

"Well, let's see how you do tomorrow and then we can decide if this is a productive way of studying," said Maura. "Now, what do you call the view that criminality is influenced by a changing combination of life experiences and personal characteristics?"

"Changing combination…is it developmental theory?"

"Yes! My roll!" She rolled the dice and then looked up at Jane, a mischievous smile on her face. Jane looked at the dice. One said _lick_. The other said _below waist_.

Jane raised her eyebrows with a smile. "Gotta do what the dice say." She lay back and thrust her hips forward, offering herself up. Maura got down between Jane's legs and ran her tongue up one side of Jane's pussy, then down the other. She lapped her way around in ever-tightening circles, getting closer and closer to the spot where Jane most wanted her, and then—

Just as she got there, the timer went off. Maura immediately sat up.

"No!" shrieked Jane.

"Sorry, we have to keep going with the questions. I want you to do well on your test."

Jane pushed herself into a sitting position. "This game is _torture_."

"Well, we only have a few questions left. Then we can do whatever we want."

"Okay, hit me. Let's get this over with."

"Okay, what do you call the theory that people become criminals when the ties that bind them to society are weakened or broken?"

"I can't believe how many fucking theories there are. Okay, this is the one I missed that made you put your bra back on, so I remember it now. Social control."

"Very good! See, this is good motivation for you."

"I'll do anything if it means I get to see your lovely tits," said Jane, rolling the dice. " _Kiss lips_. Damn, I wanted boobies."

Maura smiled. "You have to do what the dice say."

"Can't complain," agreed Jane. She took Maura's head in her hands, tilted it back, and kissed her, tasting herself on Maura's lips. The kiss deepened as Jane threaded her fingers into Maura's hair, tongue exploring, breasts bumping up against Maura's. And then the timer went off.

"Worst sound in the world!" groaned Jane.

Maura giggled. "If you get this last one right, you can do whatever you want, no timer needed."

"Fuck yeah," said Jane. "Read it!"

"What is the theory that a need for high levels of stimulation leads to criminal behavior?"

"That would be arousal theory," Jane announced triumphantly, "and I am aroused right now, so give me my high levels of stimulation, baby!"

She reached for her fiancée, but Maura shook her head. "Sorry, that's wrong."

"It's not wrong! It can't be wrong! Maura, give me that card!"

Maura handed the card over, laughing. "I'm just kidding! You got it right!"

"I should deny you sex for that mean trick, but then I'd be punishing myself, so I guess I'm gonna have to let it slide," said Jane. "So get over here!"

Maura giggled, climbing into Jane's lap. Her lips slid down Jane's neck, hands moving to fondle Jane's breasts again. Jane's hands moved through Maura's soft hair, down her smooth back, onto her ass and back up again, around to those amazing tits. Maura, as if reading her mind, heaved herself up so Jane could take a nipple in her mouth. Jane nibbled and sucked, tracing the other breast with her fingers. She remembered the first time she'd ever seen Maura's cleavage (while _working_ , of all times) and how she'd been overcome with the desire to just start licking. But now…now she could really do it, and it was heaven.

"Jane," Maura gasped urgently. "I need you." That was Maura for you. She had endless patience in most situations, but when she needed to be fucked, she needed it _now_.

"I need you too," breathed Jane.

Maura nodded. "Lie down. We'll do it together."

So they lay down, facing each other, and Jane reached for Maura, caressing her slick, soft folds, feeling Maura do the same to her. She could feel that Maura was open and ready, so she slowly slid her fingers inside her warmth. Maura followed suit, looking Jane right in the eyes, her own eyes dark with desire. Jane imagined hers looked the same way as she deepened her thrusts, moving her fingers in sync with Maura's, reveling in the knowledge that they were both experiencing the same sensations. This, this was the kind of sex she'd always wanted. This was what she needed.

After climaxing together, they went to sleep, limbs tangled together, study cards scattered around the bed. Jane ran over the test questions in her mind and found she could remember quite a few just by thinking about what item of clothing was coming off or what they did with the sex dice. Maybe this _was_ a good study method.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

For much of Maura's life, Christmas had been something to dread. The worst was the year she was five. She'd started by making herself really unpopular in kindergarten by telling her classmates that Santa Claus was a myth. She had been very surprised to discover that they all thought he was a real person even though it was scientifically impossible for reindeer to fly. She tried explaining that to everyone, some kids had started crying, and the teacher called her parents. Constance explained that she'd never told Maura about Santa Claus other than as a story, as she thought lying to children was wrong, but when she learned that the kids had nicknamed Maura "The Grinch," she talked to her daughter very gently about the importance of respecting others' beliefs. Maura tried apologizing to her classmates, but the nickname stuck and ended up following her for years. The saddest thing, Maura realized, was that the other children were having a lot of fun believing in the myth. She began to feel like she was missing out.

And that was pretty much the highlight of the Christmas season that year.

They spent Christmas with her maternal grandparents, in their English countryside manor. It was a beautiful old house, the kind that would cause Jane to make all sorts of Downton Abbey jokes if she visited today. Also visiting were Maura's Aunt Florence and Uncle George, along with their two children, ten-year-old Oscar and seven-year-old Briony. Maura very rarely saw her cousins and she wanted very much to play with them, so she tried to be on her best behavior and never once mentioned Santa Claus. Every time she came near them when they were playing, however, they gave each other a look and left the room. Aunt Florence was the same way. While Constance remarked on how much Oscar and Briony had grown, Florence had nothing to say about Maura. And, truth be told, neither did her grandparents.

On Christmas morning, everyone opened presents. Maura had helped her mother to pick out just the right gifts for Oscar and Briony, and she was so excited to watch them opening their gifts that she _almost_ didn't notice that they hadn't gotten anything for her. Maybe they weren't expecting anything from her, she reasoned, and were now very embarrassed. She didn't want them to be too embarrassed to enjoy their gifts from her, however, so she made a big show of how happy she was to be _giving_ presents. Then she watched as her cousins opened several presents from their grandparents, all very nice, expensive toys. Maura had only one present from her grandparents: a ballerina Barbie. Maura did like ballet, but she'd never really played with Barbies before. She had the bigger dolls that she could play doctor with, and her elaborate dollhouse with the big, happy family living in it. She'd never felt the need for anything in-between. However, she thanked her grandparents, and she did her best to enjoy playing with the doll and not notice the much fancier, prettier dolls Briony had been given.

Later, she overheard her mother and her grandparents arguing. "Don't you think she notices?" Constance hissed. "You spoil your other grandchildren. You spend hundreds of dollars on them, but you can't be bothered to spend more than ten dollars on Maura."

"Why would I spend as much on her as I do on my real grandchildren? She's just some waif you took in. She'll never amount to anything."

"Your _real_ grandchildren?" Constance exclaimed in disbelief.

"She's right, Constance," said Aunt Florence. "Blood is thicker than water. Even the children can tell she's not really one of us."

"The children are picking up on the behavior of the adults," said Constance, barely controlling her voice. Maura had never heard her so angry. "Maura is smarter than both of them put together."

Just then, the adults noticed Maura listening, and they all yelled at her to go play. She went away in tears, but then her cousins found her, and they were acting nice for a change. They asked her if she wanted to play hide and seek. She was very excited to say yes, so Briony went to count as she and Oscar ran off to hide. Oscar said he'd help her get into a good hiding place, and she picked the linen closet. He boosted her up to a high shelf and then she climbed all the way to the top.

"She'll never find you here!" said Oscar happily, closing the door. So Maura waited on the top shelf of the linen closet.

For some time, she was proud that she had such a good hiding place, although she wished that she'd brought a book (and a flashlight). But as more and more time passed, she began to get worried. She realized she couldn't possibly get out by herself. She could have easily climbed down the shelves if the door were open, but with it closed, there was no room, and she couldn't see a thing. She started to call for help, but no one heard her.

She was there for about three hours when her mother finally found her. She was absolutely furious and insisted on leaving her parents' home right away. She called her sister's children monsters, and eventually Maura figured out that they had tricked her, that there was no hide and seek game.

They never spent another Christmas with family. After that, they usually traveled to a new destination each year, just the three of them. They got to see a lot of interesting things, but Christmas always felt sort of empty. When Maura grew up, their celebrations became erratic. Sometimes her parents were traveling separately over the holidays and there was no point in even trying to get together. On years like that, Christmas for Maura meant spending a lot of money to get nice imported strawberries for Bass. When her parents were in one place, Christmas meant flying out to see them and bringing gifts that never seemed adequate. Sometimes she watched Christmas movies on TV and tried to imagine what it would be like to have one of those big, noisy family celebrations at home. For her, it had never happened outside of the dollhouse she had when she was a little girl.

And then she met Jane.

Her first Christmas with Jane was the year Angela and Frank got divorced. Angela had asked if she could host her annual Christmas gathering in Maura's house, and Maura said yes, of course, before timidly asking if she could come. "You're asking if you can come to an event in your own home?" Angela had said with a laugh. So Maura had come, and to her amazement, it was just like the movies. Everyone was loud and happy, the room was full of love, and Maura was treated just like family. Since then, she had spent every Christmas with the Rizzolis. And now, for the first time, she was an _official_ part of the family.

That _might_ have been why she was awake at six a.m. on Christmas Day, but she thought it had more to do with wanting to give Jane her presents. She'd gone all out this year, because she could. Jane was going to be her wife. She could buy her whatever she wanted now.

She lay awake, watching her beautiful Jane for some sign that she might wake soon, but the brunette continued sleeping soundly. Maura knew of one way to get her up, though: food. So when the sun finally began to rise, she wrote a little note to tell Jane she was downstairs cooking breakfast (with everything that was going on, Jane would get a little panicked if she woke up and Maura wasn't there) and crept downstairs in her robe. She took the French toast that had been soaking overnight out of the fridge and put it in the oven, then set about slicing up the frozen strawberries she'd thawed. Once the smell of the toast began wafting through the house, Jane appeared in her bathrobe, looking disheveled and absolutely gorgeous. Maura ran to kiss her.

"Merry Christmas!" she said breathlessly. "I made breakfast! French toast with strawberries and whipped cream!"

"So that's why you're up so early," said Jane. "It smells amazing."

"I couldn't sleep! I'm very eager for you to open your presents." She looked towards the tree, which was exploding with gifts.

"You're kind of amazing," said Jane, touching Maura's hair.

"I just really love you, and I don't have to downplay it anymore."

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome, isn't it?"

"You know I think the word 'awesome' is overused," said Maura, "but I think our relationship is genuinely awe-inspiring so, yes, it's awesome."

As soon as they had finished breakfast, Maura dragged Jane excitedly to the tree. She couldn't wait for Jane to see her gifts.

"I don't know if you'll be able to top my birthday," said Jane. "I think you found duplicates of just about every valuable thing I lost in the fire."

"Well, now I'm giving you things you _didn't_ lose in the fire," said Maura, handing Jane a wrapped package. "Things you never had before."

"Okay, well, I'm game." Jane handed a small present to Maura and began ripping into the wrapping paper on hers. "More signed baseballs?"

"Look closely," said Maura. "Each ball is from a different World Series, and each one is signed by the whole team at the time."

Jane looked at each ball. "2004, 2007, and 2013! Each World Series win from my lifetime!"

"I thought those would be good additions to your collection."

Jane grinned. "Thank you. Now open yours."

Maura opened it and found a pair of delicate gold dangly earrings with a double helix structure. She gasped.

"I thought DNA earrings would be right up your alley," said Jane. "They're geeky and beautiful, just like you."

"Jane, they _are_ beautiful! I got you a jewelry gift too!" She grabbed another present from the tree and gave it to Jane.

"Mm, okay," said Jane uncertainly. She tore off the paper, opened the box inside, and found a 2013 World Series Championship ring. "Whoa," she said. "Is this a replica?"

Maura shook her head. "I bought it on ebay. It belonged to their athletic trainer. The little socks on the ring are made from actual rubies."

"Are you serious? What did this cost? No – don't tell me." Jane gingerly removed the ring and started trying it on different fingers.

"I can get it sized to fit you, but I thought I'd see what finger you wanted to wear it on first," Maura said shyly. "It's not _pretty_ jewelry, but it's _you_."

"It's so big. I might just display it." She put the ring back in the box. "I feel like you just proposed to me all over again."

"You're the one who proposed."

"I feel like you just proposed to me for the first time then!" She gave Maura a kiss. "Okay, open another one."

Maura opened the proffered gift and found a gold necklace with a flower pendant, purple sapphires in the middle and tiny diamonds covering the petals. "It matches my engagement ring!" she gasped.

"Yeah." Jane smiled. "Come here, I'll put it on you."

Maura turned around and let Jane fasten the beautiful necklace on. "I love it," she whispered. "I could wear this on our wedding day!"

"It looks great with your robe," said Jane. "Okay, what do I open next?"

"This one." Maura passed her a small package. "I'm afraid I went with a theme this year."

"If that means they're all Sox memorabilia, I'm not complaining." Jane opened the box to find a white gold necklace with a B pendant, in the font of the Boston Red Sox, decorated with diamonds.

"Sports fans can be pretty too," Maura said. "Shall I put it on you?"

"Why not?" Jane held up her hair. "You think I could make this work with my wedding dress?"

"Maybe, if I get you a fancier chain."

"It would only be fitting, given our wedding location." Jane handed Maura a present that was clearly a book. Maura eagerly opened it. It was _The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Best Drinks_ , by Amy Stewart.

" _The Drunken Botanist!_ Thank you, Jane!" Maura said excitedly. She couldn't wait to try out the recipes in the book.

"I was kind of afraid to buy it, because I know it's going to result in you mixing up drinks with weird ingredients and then making me try them, but you wanted it, so…"

"I won't give you anything I don't think you'll enjoy," Maura promised.

"Yeah, that's the problem," said Jane. "You want me to enjoy everything you enjoy."

"Well, I know you'll enjoy this." Maura passed Jane one last gift.

"Whoa, this is a heavy one." Jane ripped off the paper and uncovered a replica of the World Series trophy, the words _Boston Red Sox 2013_ engraved on the base.

"Now _that_ is a replica," Maura told her.

"Good to know you didn't steal the real one from Fenway. This is awesome. Where will I put it, though?"

"I'm clearing out some of my art objects to make room for more of your things. This house needs to be _ours_ , not just mine."

"Well, better leave room for a few more art objects of your own." Jane pushed a large present towards Maura, who opened it to find a foot-tall bronze sculpture of a naked woman riding a horse.

"Lady Godiva!" Maura exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was looking around the shop at the art museum, trying to find something unique for you, and when I saw that I thought of that story you told me from your 'wild' college days, when you rode a horse naked at a dressage event. So I had to get it, for my very own Lady Godiva."

"Aww, Jane!"

"I wish I could have been there for the live show," Jane said. "At first I thought that was something I'd missed out on by not going to BCU when I first got in, but let's get real. I would never have been at a _dressage_ event."

Maura laughed.

~R&I~

Later the house filled with Rizzolis, food, and more presents. It was noisy and cheerful and everything Christmas should be, and Maura enjoyed it more than ever knowing that she was now a permanent part of this family, one that had no trouble seeing her as one of them even though she wasn't related by blood.

"That was exhausting," said Jane that night, when everyone was gone and the house was quiet again.

"In the best possible way," agreed Maura, picking up little bits of discarded wrapping paper. "I just keep thinking, if we do have a baby after we're married, this is the sort of environment the child will grow up in. I feel fortunate to be able to give that to my child."

Jane smiled. "I don't think Ma will have any trouble spoiling all grandchildren equally, whether they're her own flesh and blood or not."

"And I don't think our sweet little T.J. would lock his cousin in the closet."

"You're not inviting those cousins to the wedding, are you?"

Maura shook her head. "I barely talk to them, so I don't see the point."

"Good. If they came I'd probably end up locking them in a closet somewhere."

Maura laughed. "I think at your age, that's considered a criminal offense."

"Good thing they won't be there then." Jane stepped closer and kissed her. "I think a hot bath in the Jacuzzi tub would be a good end to the day, don't you?"

Maura grinned. "I think so. With wine."

Jane kissed her again. "You bring the wine. I'll go run the water."

Jane went upstairs, and Maura went into the kitchen to choose a bottle of wine. She heard her phone buzz on the counter and turned around, her heart beating faster.

It was another unfamiliar number. The text simply read, _You can't hide from me_.

Maura picked it up with trembling fingers. She knew she shouldn't respond, shouldn't engage with this lunatic. She should just show it to Jane. But she was so _tired_ of this.

 _Who is this?_ she typed, and then hit send.

The phone buzzed again almost immediately. _I won't let you take what's mine_.

 _If she wanted to be yours, she would be_ , Maura responded. _I'm not forcing her to be with me. It's what she wants!_

 _I've already warned you. If you're as smart as people say, you will cut your losses now._

Maura couldn't believe it. Did he really expect her to just drop Jane, the love of her life, because he said to?

 _I don't know who you are,_ she typed, _but I am prepared to fight for her if I have to._

A minute passed, and Maura wondered if the mysterious texter would respond. She turned around and got a bottle of wine and two glasses, determined not to let this ruin their evening. Then the phone buzzed again.

 _Best sharpen your sword then._


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

In January, three months before the wedding, Maura's first book went on sale. Jane was insanely proud. It was a great book, and she was pretty sure she didn't just think that because she was sleeping with the author. They held a release party at the local bookstore, where people were able to get their copies signed, and they had an excellent turnout. Maura, who was used to being behind the scenes, was a bit nervous about being the center of attention for a whole evening, but she handled it well. Jane took about a million pictures of her reading from her book, signing people's books, and just generally looking gorgeous.

Life was good right now, really good. They'd just purchased their wedding rings, they'd finalized details regarding everything from food to flowers, they'd printed out programs, and Maura had even ordered fancy favors for all the guests. Jane was about to start the spring semester at BCU, having earned straight A's the previous semester (thanks in part to Maura's ingenious study strategies), and she was still quite happy at BPD. Everything was great, and now Maura was a published author! All they needed to do now was figure out who the hell was sending those threatening texts.

"And here's the famous author, Dr. Maura Isles, arriving home at her fabulous Beacon Hill mansion," Jane said in her best announcer voice as she parked in the driveway after the party. "And that looks like her devoted fiancée, Jane Rizzoli, in the driver's seat! I'm willing to bet those two are in for a night of hot lovin' between the sheets."

Maura laughed. " _Famous_ is a bit of an exaggeration. I just hope people will buy the book. I'm almost dreading looking at my sales figures." They got out of the car and began making their way to the front door.

"People are already buying it! I think it's going to be a huge hit. It's certainly better than most of the drivel out there."

"You really think so?"

"Of course! And it was certainly written by the hottest author in the world. I don't know who held that title before, but they've just been knocked off their throne, because Maura Isles has officially taken the top spot."

Maura laughed and began to unlock the door, but then she looked down. "Jane, there's an envelope on the doormat."

Jane looked down. It was much too flat to contain any kind of explosives or anything, but you couldn't be too careful. "Do you have gloves in your purse?"

"Of course." Maura took out a pair of latex gloves and handed them to Jane, who put them on. She gingerly picked up the envelope and held it up under the light.

"M. Isles," she read. "We'll see about that." She opened the envelope.

"Jane, be careful! There could be a hazardous substance in there!" Maura took out her phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it on the contents of the envelope as Jane carefully slid them out.

"I don't see any white powder or anything," said Jane. "It's pictures."

The first picture showed a group of people on horseback, young men and women, none of them wearing clothes. The second picture was a closeup of one of the riders.

It was Maura.

Underneath was a typewritten note: _You have one week to stop the wedding or these pictures go viral._

~R&I~

"I mean, I don't think she'd _lose_ her job," Jane said, sitting next to Nina at her desk the next day. "But it would be a humiliating for her, and it would bring unwanted attention to the Office of the Medical Examiner."

"Maybe I should call the governor and let him know this could be coming out," said Maura miserably. "I can find out how he wants me to handle it."

"No, Maura, you shouldn't have to do that," Jane told her. "We just can't let these pictures get out."

"And how will you stop them? We're not calling off the wedding!"

"No, of course not," said Jane.

"You could elope," suggested Nina. "Get married now. Then he can't pressure you to call it off."

Jane looked at Maura.

"We've been planning our dream wedding," Maura said softly.

"Yes, we have," agreed Jane. "And no one's going to stop us from having it. What we need to do is find out who sent these pictures. He's the one who's going to pay, not us."

"The question is, who would know Maura did this?" said Nina, indicating the envelope containing the pictures (Jane was refusing the let Frankie see them). "I mean, it was so long ago."

"I think we can completely rule out my dad," said Jane. "I ruled him out a long time ago. I could see him wanting to stop the wedding, but he wouldn't make threats like this, and he's no good with technology. Plus, he really wouldn't know anything about what Maura did in college. It's not him."

"Casey also wanted us not to get married, but it seems unlikely that he would know anything about my college years either," said Maura. "You never mentioned it, did you?"

"Oh hell no, I never told anyone," said Jane. "I was keeping that sexy mental image for myself. Besides, sending weird texts wouldn't be Casey's style. He's nauseatingly upright."

"As far as you know," Nina pointed out.

"True. But then there's Davies."

It was like a dark shadow fell over the room as soon as she spoke the name. The three women were quiet for a moment, looking at each other uneasily.

"He _would_ have the resources to search through my past," said Maura.

"He could have us under surveillance, for all I know," said Jane. "He's FBI. If he wanted to, he could remotely turn on the microphones on our phones and listen to our conversations."

Maura and Nina looked at her, gaping. "That would be illegal, in addition to violating the code of conduct at the FBI," said Nina. "You're not under investigation."

"You're right," said Jane. "He values his job too much. He would never misuse his power like that." She took the phone off her belt and pointed to it, then to Maura. Maura, getting the picture, handing over her phone. Jane took Nina's too, just to be safe. She took all three to her desk and put them in a drawer before returning.

"I know he can't listen all the time," she said. "And maybe he has other ways of doing it besides cell phones. But here's the deal: until we can prove he's behind this, we don't talk about it unless our phones are in another room. Turning them off won't help, because the FBI has ways of keeping the microphone on. We need to have our house swept for bugs, and if my lovely fiancée will consent, I really think we should install cameras, at least over the doors."

Maura chewed her lip. "Couldn't he just hack the cameras?"

"Possibly, but he can already see where we are through our cell phones. What I want is to know where _he_ is, if he's near our house. If we'd had them last night, we could maybe have seen who left these pictures. We could have seen if it was really Ma peeking in the back door after Frankie and Nina's wedding. If we put one up high that faces the street, and maybe one on the guest house, facing the alley, we could even see what kind of cars are near our house."

"I suppose I can handle that, as long as none are _in_ the house," said Maura.

"We can set it up where both of you can view the footage from your phones," said Nina. "You can look at the live feed or play anything back."

"Let's do it then," said Maura. "It's just temporary."

"Until we get the fucker," agreed Jane. "Maybe it's not Davies, but it would explain a lot. I was just talking to you on Christmas about your naked horseback riding in college, and then these pictures turn up? It's like someone was listening, and I don't know who else could have been doing it."

Maura's eyes glistened with tears. "That means he could have heard _anything_."

"I know, baby. But remember, he has a full-time job, and he's got to sleep. He can't have been listening most of the time."

"But he could have been listening _any_ of the time," said Maura miserably. "If he's spending his free time listening to us, that means he has a very strong, very unhealthy obsession with you. You have to be so careful, Jane."

"I know," said Jane, wrapping her arms around Maura. "We both have to be."

~R&I~

Jane had to leave early for an evening class, but Frankie and Nina had promised to give her a ride home. She was glad she had family she could rely on to make sure Maura was safe even when she couldn't be there.

She was walking to her car out front when she saw him: Agent Davies, standing on the corner, talking on his phone. She stuffed her bag in her car and stomped down the street to greet him.

"Jane," he said, as if he were surprised to see her. He hung up the phone.

"Davies," she said. "What brings you to Boston, again?"

"Working on a case."

"You sure take a lot of cases in Boston."

He smiled grimly. "I'd tell you more, but—"

"Oh yes, I'm sure you're not at liberty." She checked her watch. "I have a class soon, but I think I can spare a few minutes to talk to you. Shall we?" She motioned to the sidewalk, indicating they should go for a walk.

"Sure," he said. "What's on your mind?" They began walking.

"Oh, I've had a lot on my mind lately, especially after you had that little chat with my fiancée in the parking garage back in the summer."

"I assumed Maura had told you about that."

"Yes. She didn't tell me about the way you grabbed her arm, but I saw the bruises you left. Fun fact: very few people have left a mark on Maura and survived."

"I assure you, if I did, it was unintentional."

"Oh, I'm sure. Listen, I'm _going_ to marry her, so you're wasting your time with all the threatening messages."

"What threatening messages?"

"You know, the 'I won't let you marry her' and all that stuff. It's not working."

He chuckled. "So I'm not the only one who thinks you're making a horrible mistake. Sorry, but those aren't my messages. There must be other people you know who can see this makes no sense. Everyone knows you're straight, Jane. Maura might be able to make you happy for a while, but the rest of your life? I can't be the only one who is worried about it."

"No, you're not, Cameron. The other people who are worried don't know me very well either."

"I know you better than you think, Jane. We made a connection."

"Yeah, about that. You know…in spite of everything, I don't regret meeting you. I don't regret going to Quantico, or having that drink with you. I don't regret calling you later and accepting the job offer. I regret none of that, because my plan to move to Quantico is what motivated Maura to go to Paris, and me to go with her. And it was that trip, that experience of being far away from everyone and everything we know, that made Maura finally admit she loved me, and made me finally realize that the thing I'd hardly dared to dream about for seven years could become reality. As much as I've wished that I'd had the nerve to make a move on her years ago, when I look back on our month in Paris, I feel like things worked out exactly the way they should have. It was the most magical place we could have started a relationship, and when I proposed to her…it was perfect. Everything was perfect. I wouldn't trade that month for anything. So I regret nothing that led us to that place, but you know what I do regret? That night I spent with you. _That_ was a mistake."

"It didn't feel like a mistake," he spat back.

"Maybe not to you. For me, it was definitely a mistake. _You_ weren't what I wanted. At the time, I still wanted to fall out of love with Maura, and for some reason, I still wanted to be straight. I thought maybe you were giving me a chance to do both of those things. But it would never have worked, and all I did was hurt Maura's feelings and lead you to believe there was something there that wasn't. The woman I love is now being threatened because of what I did. I regret it very much."

"It certainly seemed like you wanted me at the time."

"No. I wanted what you represented to me. I don't even want that anymore." She stopped and looked at him. "Here's the thing: even if I had gone to Quantico and dated you, it would never have lasted. I would have been miserable with you, like I have been with every other guy. Like I will always be with anyone who isn't Maura. And now that I've had a taste of being with the woman I truly love, I wouldn't even consider it, even if I lost her. I'm never going back to pretending like that, and now that I know what kind of person you are, I wouldn't want to be with you if you were the last person on Earth."

"What kind of person is that, Jane?"

"The kind who can't take no for an answer. The kind who thinks he's God's fucking gift to women. The kind who uses threats to get what he wants. The kind who pretends to care about misogyny so he can get on a woman's good side, then turns out to be a misogynist himself. The kind who doesn't have a problem breaking the law or hurting innocent people."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"And I don't expect you to _admit_ it! But here's what you need to understand. Coming after me is one thing, but going after _Maura_ really gets me pissed. Even when we were just friends, I killed for her, more than once. I will defend her to the death no matter what happens. Anyone who causes trouble for her goes on my bad list, and there's no coming back from that. So, you fucked up. Don't make things worse for yourself. You wanna earn just a tiny bit of my respect back, make those pictures disappear. They're not going to ruin Maura. She already went through the very public revelation that she's the daughter of one of Boston's most famous mob bosses, and her career has flourished since then, so I don't think your little pictures are going to bring her down. But I will not have my wife publicly humiliated again. I am afraid to think what would happen to the man who did that."

"I still don't know what you're talking about, and she isn't your wife yet, is she?"

"Not officially yet, but we've already committed ourselves to each other. As far as I'm concerned, we're married now."

"Then I suppose I should congratulate you."

"Does that mean you're ready to move on?"

"I suppose I have no choice, but I still think what we almost had could have been beautiful."

She shook her head. "You're not capable of beautiful." She looked at her watch again. "I better hurry. I'm going to be late to class. Nice chat, though." She sprinted back to her car.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Maura looked over the little announcement she and Angela had written, checking one more time for errors. Maura liked the first line best: _Angela Rizzoli of Boston is pleased to announce the engagement of her daughter, Det. Jane Clementine Rizzoli, to Dr. Maura Dorothea Isles_. This would be printed in the newspaper, along with the picture Maura had selected from their photo shoot at the beach. The wedding was just two months away. This was real. It was really happening.

"Everything looks good," she told the clerk at the newspaper's office. She paid for the announcement and then smiled up at Jane. "Now all of Boston will know that you're mine," she said happily.

They'd already gone to the post office to mail their invitations. Maura was starting to feel cautiously optimistic that whoever had been trying to stop the wedding had finally given up. Those pictures of Maura naked on horseback had never gone public (although Jane said she was going to keep them for her own personal enjoyment), and the text messages had stopped after that. None of the vendors they were using for the wedding had gotten any more odd emails claiming the wedding was called off. Everything was quiet, the planning proceeding as it ought to.

"Where do you want to go for lunch?" Jane asked as they got into the car.

"There's this new bistro in the Back Bay I've been hearing about," Maura suggested.

"Do they have food _I_ would eat?"

"Yes," Maura laughed.

"Okay, I guess we can try it." Just as Jane was turning the key in the ignition, a hooded man on a bicycle rode up, stuck something magnetic on the hood of the car, and then pedaled away, quickly disappearing between buildings.

"What _is_ that?" Maura started to say, but Jane cut her off.

"Maura, get out of the car. _Now_."

Maura immediately opened her car door, but then she looked back to see if Jane was coming too. If there was something dangerous, she wasn't going to leave her behind.

"Go!" Jane shouted, pushing her out of the car. "Hurry!"

Maura fell onto her hands and knees on the pavement, but Jane followed her out the passenger door and pulled her back up.

"Run!" Jane yelled, so Maura ran, Jane right behind her, until Jane yelled "Get down!" and pushed her down on the sidewalk next to a building, covering Maura's body with her own. Immediately there was a loud boom and a flash of light. Maura squeezed her eyes shut and covered her head, feeling Jane's body wrapped around her.

The next thing Maura was aware of was screams and shouts nearby. She cautiously opened her eyes and looked around. Jane's car was in flames, and people were gathering around, most of them on cell phones. She could still feel the weight of her fiancée on top of her.

"Jane," she said urgently. No response. "Jane!" She carefully turned her body, trying not to knock Jane onto the concrete, until she was on her back with Jane still on top of her. She saw blood running from a wound on the side of Jane's head, but Jane was completely limp. Maura felt for a pulse and was relieved to find that it was present and very strong. "Jane, my Jane, wake up," she pleaded. "Come back. Please, I need you."

A man ran up, phone in hand. "There's an ambulance coming. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said Maura, flustered. "But my fiancée has a head injury. I'm a doctor; I could examine her, if you could help me move her."

"Oh, sure." The man carefully took hold of Jane under her shoulders and lifted her into a sitting position. Jane stirred at this, trying to slap his hands away.

"Jane, it's okay, I'm right here," said Maura. "Jane, look at me."

Jane opened her eyes and looked at Maura as the man backed away, talking into his phone.

"Jane, I need to examine your pupils," said Maura.

"I don't have time for this. Some fucker blew up my car!" shouted Jane. She tried to stand up, but quickly crouched back down, wincing.

"Jane, you can't go after him. You need medical treatment," Maura told her gently.

"So do you," said Jane, looking panicked. Maura looked down in surprise to see a piece of shrapnel sticking out of her left leg, which was bleeding profusely.

"He tried to kill us," said Jane over the sound of approaching sirens. "He fucking tried to kill us." She looked at Maura urgently. "It was Agent Davies. I _know_ it was. He figured out he couldn't have me, so he tried to kill us both."

"If it's him, we'll get him," Maura promised. "Right now, we just need to focus on getting our injuries treated."

~R&I~

Even at the hospital, all Jane could talk about was Agent Davies and how he had done this to them. She seemed ready to go out and murder him with her bare hands.

"Sometimes a head injury can cause more aggressive behavior," the doctor told Maura.

"Oh, no, she's always like this," she assured him. "In a good way."

A CT scan came back normal, so the doctor treated Jane's cut and instructed her to take it easy for a few days. Maura's leg wound was a little more complicated. First they had to dig around to make sure they got all debris out, and then they had to stitch the wound up and give her prophylactic antibiotics. She would be staying in the hospital overnight to get the antibiotics intravenously, which was a relief to her because it meant Jane would also be at the hospital all night, even though she was refusing to be admitted herself.

"Jane, you're supposed to be resting," Maura implored as night fell and Jane was still pacing around the room. Maura was sipping ice water, her leg propped up, a bit woozy from pain meds. The leg was too painful to put weight on right now, but the doctor assured her it would be better by her wedding day. And, as she pointed out to Jane, it was the same leg that had gotten compartment syndrome five years ago, so it was already scarred. Her floor-length dress would cover it anyway.

"I can't relax until the fucker who tried to kill my bride is behind bars," Jane griped. "Why haven't we heard anything?"

"I'm sure someone will contact us as soon as they know something," Maura promised her. "You know, it would be a lot easier for me to relax if you would stop pacing around."

"Sorry," said Jane, sitting in the chair beside the bed. She took Maura's hand and kissed it, then just held it, stroking each finger in turn with her thumb.

"Aren't you dizzy? You have a concussion," Maura said gently.

"Yeah, kinda, but I'm just so pissed." She kissed Maura's cheek. "I just love you so much. I want this to be over so I can marry you in peace, and live happily ever after with you."

"I want that too," said Maura. "You're not the only one whose bride was almost killed today."

Jane nodded. "I'm just glad we got out in time."

"Thanks to you." Maura leaned over and kissed her fiancée. "You're still my hero."

Jane couldn't help smiling. "Well, what's the occasional car bomb in the face of true love?"

Maura smiled back, but just then, the last person she expected to see walked into the room: Agent Davies. Jane jumped out of her chair.

"The fuck are you doing here?" she shouted.

"Nice to see you too, Jane," he said.

"The hell it is! You tried to blow up my wife!"

"Actually, Jane, I came here to tell you we arrested the man who put the bomb on your car."

Jane stared at him, dumbfounded.

"The FBI has been investigating the outside contacts of an inmate named Garrett Fairfield for months now," Davies continued. "It appears that he was not pleased when he learned that his ex-girlfriend was engaged to the cop who arrested him."

Maura looked at Jane in shock. " _Garrett_?"

"How would he have even known we were engaged?" asked Jane, frowning.

"We saw his parents at a charity event last summer," Maura recalled. "We only spoke to them very briefly – I don't think they were happy to see us – but we mentioned our engagement."

"I suppose that _was_ not long before the text messages started," said Jane slowly. "Are you saying this is what you were here for all those times you were in Boston on a case?"

"Well, I'm not at liberty to comment on all my cases," he said. "But I have been in town on that case. The man we arrested was hired to make a bomb and plant it on your car at a time when you were both in the vehicle. We're not sure which other members of the Fairfield family were involved in this, but we believe the bomber will talk more once we put his feet to the fire – metaphorically speaking, of course."

"Jane, Garrett would have known about the protest I did at the equestrian event," Maura said softly. "He was there. I was dating him at the time."

"So it wouldn't have been hard for him to get pictures," Jane said thoughtfully. "But still, why does he give a fuck if I marry you? He can't have you anyway. He's doing life."

"From the intel I've gathered, he's been obsessed with the two of you ever since his arrest," said Davies. "Maura was the only serious girlfriend he ever had. He was shocked that she turned on him. He's exhausted the appeals system over the years and is finally being forced to accept that he's going to spend his life behind bars. His fellow inmates say that when he found out you two were engaged, he began telling everyone it was a trap, that you, Jane, wanted to bring him down just to keep him from getting back together with Maura. Ridiculous, I know, but these types of crimes rarely make sense."

"I suppose that would explain a lot," Jane admitted.

"Yes. I think you owe me an apology," said Davies.

Jane bristled. "Excuse me? I don't owe you shit. I would never have suspected you if you hadn't been such a jerk about me and Maura getting together. You tracked me down in _Paris_ to try to convince me we had something special, and then you stopped my wife in a parking garage and told her I didn't really want to marry her. That's not exactly the way an innocent person behaves."

"I'm sorry. I let my emotions get away from me. It's painful seeing the woman you love choose someone else, particularly when it means, shall we say, losing to the other team."

"That's bullshit," Jane said hotly. "You barely knew me. We went on _one_ date."

"Two, if you count our drink in Quantico."

"I don't," Jane spat back.

"Agent Davies, thank you for letting us know about the arrest," said Maura. "Jane and I would like to be left alone now."

"As you wish," said Davies, turning to go. "I'll let you know of any further developments, but, now that they're under investigation for this, I don't think you have to worry too much about the Fairfield family."

"Well, that was certainly unexpected," said Maura when he had left.

"Yeah," agreed Jane. "And maybe he's telling the truth. But I still don't trust the fucker."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

"There you are," Jane said when Maura glided into the bedroom, finally returning from her hair appointment. Jane had just put on her uniform for tonight's ceremony, but without her old detective badge. She wouldn't be wearing that badge anymore after tonight. "I was beginning to think _you_ were going to make us late."

"I'll be ready before you know it. I have everything I need laid out." Maura spun around. "Do you like my hair?"

Jane wasn't entirely sure what was different about it, but she knew the correct answer to the question. "It looks beautiful!"

Maura grinned. "I just had it shaped a little, and I had the coloring changed just slightly. This will be my hairstyle for the wedding!"

"Well, I already knew you were going to be a beautiful bride." Jane kissed her and touched her hair. "You definitely smell like a hair salon."

"I can't believe the wedding is so close!" chattered Maura excitedly as she changed into her dress. She was right. The wedding was just next month. They'd had their last dress fittings, gotten their license, written their vows. Jane's head injury had healed now, though Maura was still walking with a slight limp, but she was confident she'd be all better by the wedding. They'd received no more threats and had heard nothing out of Agent Davies besides a few updates on the investigation into the Fairfield family. It seemed like everything was okay, and yet Jane couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't, that Davies was lying to them about _something_. She just didn't know how to prove it.

But for tonight, the most important thing was that Jane was being promoted to sergeant. This involved a big ceremony with other people who were being promoted, as well as some people who were getting medals. The whole family was coming, and Frankie had volunteered to give the speech introducing Jane. It was customary for a family member to come onstage and pin the new badge on when a cop was promoted, and Jane had chosen Maura to do the honors. This was a very important night, important enough to Jane that she had put on her uniform without any prompting from her soon-to-be wife.

Maura drove to the Back Bay Meeting Hall while Jane looked over her notes for the speech she had to give (now that she thought about it, this might be why she didn't go for sergeant sooner). At the ceremony, Frankie gave an embarrassingly long speech in which he listed Jane's many brave and heroic acts as a cop. At the end, he presented her shiny new sergeant's badge to Maura, who proudly pinned it onto Jane's uniform. It was a moment they would all remember forever. Jane knew that for a fact, because Angela managed to take about 20 million pictures in the few seconds it took for Maura to pin the badge on. Then Jane gave her own awkward (and much-photographed) speech, and then they were all free to enjoy drinks and dessert.

"I'm so proud of you," said Maura for about the thousandth time that night.

"So I gathered," said Jane. "I just want to get home."

"You're tired of mingling?"

"A little, but it's mostly because I'm remembering what you did the last time I wore this uniform, and I'm hoping for a repeat."

Maura grinned, tracing Jane's new badge with her fingers. "It's twice as sexy with the sergeant's badge."

"Yeah?"

"Oh yes, _Sergeant_ Detective Rizzoli."

"Then I think we'd better get out of here."

Maura took out her car keys, eyes dazzling.

Jane went around the room, making excuses for why she had to head home, and finally made her way out the door with Maura.

Fortunately, it was a short drive from the Back Bay to Beacon Hill. Jane had no notes to look at this time, so she found herself looking at Maura instead. She really did look amazing, and Jane couldn't wait to get her naked. She casually rested a hand on Maura's knee as the blonde drove, then began to slowly move her hand up Maura's skirt, feeling smooth skin beneath her fingers.

"Jane," said Maura warningly. "I'm driving."

"So you want me to stop?" Jane asked slyly, her fingers moving to the inside of Maura's thigh.

Maura hesitated. "No," she admitted. "But do be careful."

"Maybe you shouldn't drive as slow as you usually do, then. Get us home before I get too far."

"I don't drive _slowly_. I go the speed limit."

"Which is slow." Jane touched the silk of Maura's panties, and Maura let out a soft cry. The car began to go a little faster.

A few minutes later, they were in their driveway. Maura parked hastily and hurried into the house, dragging Jane behind her. Jane dropped her things in the hallway and grabbed Maura, pinning her against the living room wall with a strong kiss.

"Jane, please," whimpered Maura, her hands all over the uniform – though, like last time, she made no move to take it off. Jane felt differently. Maura looked hotter than hell in her dress, but Jane knew she'd look even hotter without it. She pressed her mouth to Maura's again, parting her lips with her tongue, as she took off Maura's coat and unzipped her dress, pulling it down until it dropped onto the floor. She hastily removed Maura's bra as well, her hands eager to cup those soft tits, flicking her nipples with her thumbs.

"Jane," Maura gasped when the kiss broke. "Please. I need…"

"I know," Jane whispered, running her fingers through Maura's soft hair. "I'll take care of you."

She knelt and pulled down Maura's drenched panties, helping her to step out of them. She was careful of the pink spot on her leg where her flesh was still healing from the shrapnel wound.

"Here, you shouldn't put putting too much weight on this leg," said Jane softly, lifting Maura's left leg to rest on her shoulder. This position gave her a full view of Maura's pussy. Bracing herself with her hands on the blonde's hips, Jane dove in with her tongue, licking her way around Maura's swollen folds and moving in a spiral pattern, getting closer and closer to her stiff little clit. When she finally got there, Maura cried out, pulling Jane's head closer. Jane lapped away, loving every second of it. She loved the taste of her fiancée, loved hearing her cries of ecstasy, loved the way Maura tried to push more of her pussy into Jane's mouth. She took her left hand off Maura's hip and wet her fingers, sliding them upwards and inside of this amazing goddess she would soon be calling her wife. Knowing exactly what Maura wanted, she fucked her gently, then harder and harder, still licking and sucking her clit, until Maura screamed her name, clenching around Jane's fingers.

Jane gave her a moment before carefully withdrawing and easing Maura's leg off her shoulder.

"I think we should go upstairs," said Maura breathlessly.

"Sounds good to me." Jane picked up Maura's discarded coat and draped it around her shoulders. "Come on, beautiful. Sergeant Detective Rizzoli needs to have a meeting with you in her office."

"You don't have an office," said Maura. "You won't have an office until you make lieutenant."

"The _bedroom_ is my office, okay?"

"Oh," giggled Maura. "Yes, of course, Sergeant."

They got upstairs and Maura quickly cast the coat off and nudged Jane onto the bed. Jane lay back, still in her uniform, and waited. Maura was soon on top of her, taking off her tie and then unbuttoning her shirt.

"You wore the bra that unfastens in the front!" Maura exclaimed happily.

"I wanted to make things easier for you," Jane said with a smile.

Maura quickly popped the bra open and bent down to suck an erect nipple. As she did so, she reached down to undo Jane's belt with deft fingers. Once it was undone, she sat up and pulled Jane's pants down to her knees, her underwear too. Then she sat on Jane's hips, positioning herself so that her clitoris was rubbing against Jane's. Bracing herself with hands on Jane's thighs, she began grinding against her. Jane moaned, taking hold of Maura's thighs for support and lifting her pelvis upwards, trying to make the two of them into one. They rocked like that until Jane exploded with ecstasy, screaming out profanities as Maura let herself come as well. Then Maura collapsed into Jane's arms.

"Well," Jane said when she had caught her breath, "is sex with a sergeant any better than sex with a regular detective?"

"Yes," Maura said decisively. "And I think sex with my sergeant _wife_ will be even better."

They ended up going for a few more rounds after that (it _was_ a special occasion, after all), but then Maura remembered she had fencing practice in the morning and decided she'd better get some sleep. Jane lay awake for a while, thinking. What was she missing? Why couldn't she relax and believe that the threat to her and Maura was over? She hadn't told Maura how she felt just yet, but she knew what Maura would say: Jane's intuition was rarely wrong. She held her sleeping fiancée close and promised herself she would figure it out.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Maura had just gotten to the fencing club when she realized her mask wasn't in her bag. She'd set it out to dry after her last tournament and must have forgotten to put it away. She thought about calling Jane to bring it to her, but she was early, and she knew Jane was working on a class assignment. So she sent Jane a text: _Coming back for my mask! Could you set it by the door for me? It's in the yoga room._

The reply came within a minute:

 _Of course, Sir Isles. Your helm shall be just inside the castle door upon your return_.

Chuckling, Maura started the car and headed back home. As she drove, she continued running through wedding details in her mind, which was pretty much all she did anymore. There were only a few weeks left now, and there was still so much to do! They had to pick up their dresses, break in their shoes, pack for the honeymoon, and book their spa treatment. Their rehearsal and the subsequent dinner were scheduled for two days before the wedding, so she wanted them to spend the eve of their wedding day relaxing at a spa, getting facials, body wraps, manicures, pedicures, and of course, massages. They could use the relaxation time after all the fuss of getting the wedding organized, and she also wanted to be sure they both looked their best for the big day. She was really looking forward to that.

When she got to the house, she found her mask waiting just inside the front door, but the house was silent. Something felt wrong.

She knew she was going to be late to practice now, but she needed to make sure Jane was okay. She went into the kitchen, where Jane did most of her homework, and saw her laptop sitting on the counter. The backpack she kept her school things in was on a chair. Maura was about to turn around and call for Jane upstairs when she noticed a piece of paper sitting on the laptop. She picked it up and found a note in Jane's handwriting:

 _Dear Maura,_

 _I'm so sorry to do this to you when we were just about to be married, but I can't go through with it. Being with you has caused me to lose some of the most Important people in my life. I can't do this anymore. Please let me go._

 _-Jane_

Maura's eyes filled with tears. Jane was leaving her? She should have known this was too good to be true, Jane would never…

But no. It didn't make any sense. Jane had been here just 15 minutes ago, making jokes and setting out the mask. Besides, she would never hurt her like this. She had promised Maura that _she_ was the most important person in her life now. Someone must have forced her to write this note.

Her breath coming faster, she took her cell phone out of her purse and opened the app that let her view the live stream from the cameras Jane had put over the doors. Jane had insisted on leaving them up until after the wedding, just as a precaution, and Maura had relented. The camera out front just showed her own car sitting in front of the house, as well as familiar neighbors' cars, so she checked the one out back, the one that showed the alley behind the house.

There was a strange car sitting in the alley. Taking note of the direction it was facing, she took a screen shot and sent it to Nina with no explanation as she ran out the back door.

The back gate going into the alley was still open, but the car was starting to move, driving slowly towards the side street. "Stop!" she shouted, running after the car. And it did stop, for just a second, before reversing and accelerating towards her.

She jumped out of the way just in time, falling to her hands and knees just inside the gate. As the car began to drive forwards again, the driver's side window rolled down. Maura saw the gun just in time.

There was a bang, and then another, as Maura ran back into the house. It was obvious that she couldn't stop them on foot. So she ran back out the front door and jumped into her car. She sped away from the curb, turning down the side street just in time to see the strange car exiting the alley. She followed, fumbling for her phone.

"Maura, what's going on?" Frankie asked when he answered.

"Frankie! Someone's got Jane! Someone with a gun, he has her in a car, he tried to run me over!"

"Maura, calm down! Is it the car you just sent Nina a picture of?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, I think I can just make out the license plate—"

"Massachusetts plates 2CFJ71. It's a blue Ford Focus, a rental car. I'm following it now."

"Maura, no, don't follow it—"

"I'm following the car! Can you have Nina trace my phone to find out where we're going?"

"I can, but Maura, you shouldn't be following them. Let me handle it. I'm on my way out now."

"I can't stop, we'll lose them! We'll never find out where he's taking her!"

"We'll find her, Maura, but Jane will kill me if you get hurt."

"I can't let _her_ get hurt!" Maura cried, blinking back tears. She couldn't cry now; it would interfere with her driving.

"Maura, would you please just let police do the police work?"

"I will when the police get here," said Maura before hanging up. He was distracting her. She needed to focus on the car in front of her.

The car made several turns through the narrow streets of Beacon Hill before pulling out onto Storrow Drive. She piggybacked behind it, careful not to let any other cars get between them. When the driver accelerated to well above the posted speed limit, Maura accelerated too, even though she didn't like to speed. The driver changed lanes several times without warning, but Maura could play that game too, and she kept the car in sight even when she couldn't stay directly behind it. When it took the first exit after crossing the river, she was quick to exit as well, and she found herself directly behind it again, mimicking its every move. The love of her life was inside that car, against her will, and she was not about to let it get away.

Finally, the car turned into a large cemetery, winding its way through little roads named after plants. It came to a stop in a deserted spot and she stopped as well, taking her sabre out of her fencing bag. It wasn't meant to hurt anyone, but it was the only weapon she had, and she didn't think she should go out there unarmed.

The driver's door opened, and Maura felt no surprise when she saw Agent Davies get out, gun in hand. He opened a back door and pulled out Jane, whose hands were tied behind her. Heart thumping in her chest, Maura got out as well, bringing her weapon.

"I was hoping to lose you, but since you have the tenacity of a cockroach, I suppose I will have to deal with you before I go any further," he said to her. "A pleasure, really."

"Maura, please," Jane begged as Davies wrapped his arm around her neck, holding her tightly against him. "Get back in the car."

"No," said Maura, eyeing Davies. "I have backup on the way," she warned him.

"Oh really," he said, looking with amusement at the empty road behind her, then at the sabre in her hand. "When I said to sharpen your sword, I didn't mean it literally."

"I knew it was you," she said, her voice shaking – whether with fear or fury, she wasn't sure. "I knew you were sending those texts."

"Didn't like to blame your old boyfriend, did you?"

"I know he's a killer. I was the one who figured out he murdered his own brother, and I went with Jane to arrest him. I can believe that he would want us both dead, but what doesn't make sense is that he would try to stop the wedding. Why should he care? He's in prison. He can't have me anyway, and I can't imagine he still wants me after what I did. It made more sense for _you_ to send those texts, although it seems like a strange coincidence that he decided to blow us up while you were in the middle of sending those threatening messages."

Davies smiled. "Well, I might have nudged him a bit. He never knew exactly who he was communicating with, but I let him know I had been scorned by the same woman who arrested him and that she was now sleeping with you. I subtly suggested that you both had it coming to you, for multiple reasons."

"You _wanted_ us dead! You pretending to be helping with the case, but you wanted us both dead!"

"I did for a time, after Jane told me she wouldn't want me if I was – what was it you said, Jane? 'The last person on Earth.' Yes, that stung, but I realized I could persuade Jane to love me again if I got her alone for a long enough period of time."

"You want her to have Stockholm Syndrome?" asked Maura in distaste.

"If that's how you want to think of it. Now you're the only one I want dead."

"Maura, please," Jane begged her. "He doesn't plan to kill me. Just get out before he hurts _you_."

" _No_. I _won't_ let him take you away. This ends here."

"Yes, it does," said Davies, raising his gun to Maura. "You're the one who is ruining everything. You have to go."

Maura moved so quickly, even she didn't know what she was going to do until she had done it. The reflexes she had been honing during fencing practice kicked in and just like that, she whipped his hand with her sabre, knocking his gun to the ground. Her blade broke as it hit him, leaving a sharp edge behind, and it was this that she slashed him with as he tried to reach for his gun. His hand went instinctively to his bleeding neck, letting go of Jane, and Maura grabbed the gun from the ground.

"Get down on the ground," she commanded, pointing the gun at him as she transferred her broken sabre to the other hand.

"You really think you can overpower an FBI agent?" he asked, reluctantly sinking to his knees.

"I think she just did," said Jane, smiling a little.

"Get all the way down! On your _face_!" Maura shouted.

"You heard her," Jane said, her smile growing.

Davies eased himself onto the ground and Maura put her foot on his back, pointing the gun at his head. She thought she heard a car in the distance.

"You were smart to tie my hands," Jane told Davies. "I'd have fucking shot you by now."

The sound of the car came closer, and Maura was relieved to see Frankie and Nina driving towards them. "Thank God, we finally found you!" Frankie shouted as he got out of the driver's seat. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine, but you just missed seeing Maura kick an FBI agent's ass," called Jane in response. "The fucker broke into our house and made me come with him at gunpoint. I still don't know where we were going."

Maura began to tremble as relief flooded her limbs. "Could you handcuff him?" she asked, her voice no longer holding the fury and authority it had just moments earlier. She was suddenly exhausted.

"Gladly." Frankie got out his handcuffs and began reading Davies his rights. Nina eased the gun from Maura's fingers, and Maura rushed to Jane, untying the rope that bounds her wrists with shaking hands. The moment she was free, Jane wrapped Maura in a tight embrace.

"You're so sexy when you turn all badass like that," Jane murmured.

"I couldn't let him hurt you," Maura replied, her voice muffled against Jane's shoulder.

"Maura Isles," Jane said affectionately, rubbing Maura's back. "You are the sweetest, gentlest, most loving person I have ever known." She kissed her cheek. "And absolutely the last person I would ever want to piss off. You're dangerous."

Maura ran her fingers through Jane's curls, proving to herself that Jane was safe. "Anyone can become dangerous if the person they love most is being threatened."

"That's true, but I think we just saw your inner mob daughter rear her head." She put her mouth close to Maura's ear. "Maybe she can come back in the bedroom later?"

Maura laughed. "We'll see."

Frankie had called for more backup, and as soon as they arrived, he transferred Davies to one of their cars to be taken downtown. As the car pulled away, Davies glanced back at Jane and Maura, who were still holding each other close. As he took his last look at Jane, he saw her smiling down at the blonde in her arms as if she were the only thing that mattered in the world.

She didn't even glance in his direction.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Jane carefully removed her engagement ring and put it on the other hand. This was it. She was about to go out into her favorite place in the world, stand in front of all the people she loved, and pledge her undying devotion to the person she loved most of all. There was no denying that this was, in fact, the most important day of her life.

It was a day she had fought for, to be sure. Just a few weeks ago, everything had nearly unraveled. Davies must have been listening in through their cell phones, must have heard Maura say she was leaving for fencing practice and headed towards their house to carry out his plan. Jane had gotten the text 15 minutes later asking her to set out Maura's fencing mask. She'd gone upstairs to get it, set it by the front door, and returned to her homework in the kitchen – only to find Davies waiting for her. He'd told her his plan, to make it look like she was running away from her ill-advised engagement. She knew he meant to keep her alive but that he viewed Maura as disposable, and the thought of Maura getting home while he was still there terrified her. She didn't want to mention that Maura was on her way back, so she'd simply cooperated fully to ensure they would be gone by the time she got there. Later she could work on an escape plan, or hope that Frankie and the others were able to track her down, but for now she just had to make sure Davies didn't do anything to harm Maura. So she wrote the note at gunpoint, making sure to throw in a subtle detail that would make it clear to Maura that she wasn't leaving willingly, and then she let Davies tie her hands and take her out to his car.

As it turned out, they weren't fast enough. Jane had completely panicked when Maura ran out behind the car, even more so when Davies attempted to run her down and then shot at her. She saw Maura make it back into the house just before Davies sped away, but a minute later, she realized Maura was following them. She tried desperately to send her fiancée a mental message to stop following and just get help, but Maura wouldn't stop, and it turned out that she knew what she was doing after all. Jane knew from past experience that Maura was not easily angered but was scary as hell when she did manage to get pissed off. It would be an understatement to say that Davies pissed her off that day by taking Jane. He was probably lucky she didn't castrate him with her broken sabre.

The investigation into Davies' illegal activities was still underway, but it was already safe to say that he was no agent anymore and would likely go away for life. Jane was now free to marry the love of her life without the threat of car bombs or angry notes.

"Janie, are you ready?" Angela called.

Jane took one last look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing her perfectly tailored off-the-shoulders wedding dress, the one that drove Maura so wild she went down on her in the dressing room. They'd had professional hairstylists and make-up artists come in, and Jane's hair was neatly pinned up, with a few curls hanging down. Her makeup looked spectacular, and she was wearing the diamond Red Sox necklace Maura had given her for Christmas. Even she had to admit, she looked great. She couldn't wait to see Maura's reaction.

"Yeah, I'm ready," she called back, picking up her bouquet of red and blue roses. She opened the door and walked out to her mother.

"You look so beautiful," Angela gushed, hastily adjusting Jane's veil and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Take your place. I'll give Maura the warning."

Jane went to her spot, peering out at the sunny ballpark. She hadn't seen Maura all day, and it was driving her nuts. Angela was a firm believer in the superstition that it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, and she'd gone out of her way to keep the two of them apart. She'd even made Jane sleep in the guest house with her last night, which meant Jane hadn't slept at all. But she would have Maura all to herself tonight, and during the next two weeks, which they would spend island-hopping in Greece. They were even visiting Lesbos, which seemed fitting.

When the string quartet outside began playing "Here Comes the Bride" (or perhaps "Here Come the Brides," in their case), Jane began her walk through the stands, lifting her skirt with one hand as she descended the stairs while guests craned their necks to look at her. Across the park, the jumbotron lit up with the words _CONGRATULATIONS JANE & MAURA_ while showing one of their engagement pictures. Jane couldn't help grinning at the sight; she'd never expected to see her own face, or Maura's, on the Fenway jumbotron. She took her place on the platform behind third base and turned around, anxiously awaiting the appearance of her bride.

The string quartet started the song over and Maura emerged. Jane caught her breath. Nothing had quite prepared her for the sight of Maura as a bride. Her hair hung loose around her bare shoulders, and she wore the diamond and sapphire necklace Jane had given her, the one that matched her engagement ring. Her long silk train trailed behind her as she made her way slowly down the stairs, eyes glued to Jane the entire time, a breathless smile on her face. She stepped up onto the platform, handed her bouquet to Nina, and took Jane's hands, giving her a dazzling grin.

"We made it," she said softly.

"We did," Jane agreed. Damn it, there were tears in her eyes. She was not going to do this. She would _not_ cry.

The ceremony began, and Maura's gaze never left Jane's the entire time. The smile remained on her beautiful face, hands clasping Jane's, as Maude, the justice of the peace they had hired, began to speak. Jane barely listened as she went on about the importance of the covenant they were about to make; all she could think about was the gorgeous woman in front of her. Maura the bride, who was here for her. She had chosen _her_ out of everyone in the world.

Suddenly Jane realized Maude was talking to her. "Will you, Jane, have Maura to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort and keep her, and, forsaking all others, remain faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

 _What_ others? Jane thought. "I do. I will," Jane said, keeping her eyes on Maura. The blonde lit up upon hearing the words as if she were just now learning that Jane intended to love her forever.

"Will you, Maura, have Jane to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort and keep her, and, forsaking all others, remain faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

"I will!" said Maura sweetly. Her face blurred and Jane blinked rapidly, clearing her vision.

"Now that you both have declared your intentions, it's time to share your vows with one another," said Maude.

Jane's heart sped up. This was real. This was really real. This wasn't a plan anymore; they were actually doing this now. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she haltingly repeated the words the justice gave her to say. "I, Jane, have chosen you, Maura, out of all of the world, to be my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish till death do us part."

Then it was Maura's turn to say the words, gazing intently into Jane's face the entire time, and that was when Jane felt the first tear trickle down her face. _Keep calm, maybe no one will notice_ , she thought, but then Maura let go of one hand and wiped the tear away with just the sweetest, gentlest touch, and Jane began sniffling. _Stop it, Rizzoli,_ Jane thought frantically.

Maude seemed unfazed, however, and simply asked for the rings. She held them up and blathered on about rings representing love without end while Jane did her best to pull herself together. Maura smiled encouragingly as the justice handed Jane Maura's ring. Jane took Maura's hand and, carefully locating the correct finger, slid the ring on. "I give you this ring as I give you myself, with love always," she repeated quickly, and then a sob escaped.

Maura patiently took Jane's ring and put it on her finger, repeating the same words. The engagement felt like just a practice now. This was the real thing; they were bound to each other permanently now. Taking Maura's hands again, Jane struggled to catch her breath between quiet sobs.

"Are you okay?" Maura whispered.

Jane nodded. She couldn't speak anymore.

The justice read some sort of blessing, and then she pronounced them legally married. "You may seal your marriage with a kiss," she told them, and Jane, taking Maura in her arms, did exactly that. The justice made some final proclamation, and then the string quartet began playing Mendelssohn's "Wedding March."

"It's time to go in," Maura said gently, linking arms with Jane and guiding her back up the way they had come out. Jane just had to trust her since she couldn't see a damn thing through the tears.

"I'm so sorry," Jane gasped as they got inside. "I meant to hold it together better than this."

"It's okay," said Maura. "We fought hard to get to this day. It's kind of hard to believe it's finally happening."

"You're my wife," whispered Jane.

Maura kissed her. "And you're mine."

Jane finally pulled herself together long enough to pose for pictures outside before going in for the reception. The string quartet also came inside to play while everyone ate dinner. After the cake they played "All I Ask of You," the song Jane proposed to, while Jane and Maura had the first dance (a dance they had spent hours practicing, since Maura said they had to do it but Jane insisted she didn't know how). This time, it was Maura's turn to cry.

"This was all I ever wanted," she whispered to Jane. "I just wanted to be with you, all the time, forever."

"You will be," Jane promised her. "I'm gonna be right by your side as long as I'm alive. That's what I just promised you, in front of all these people."

"I know." Maura sniffled, but she was smiling. "You also promised it in the Temple of Love in Paris while a different string quartet played this song."

"It's always going to take you back there, isn't it? I know it'll do that to me."

"Always. You gave me the most amazing gift that day, and I don't mean the ring."

"Well, you gave me the most amazing gift that day, so we're even."

"Did I?"

"Well, yeah. You said yes."

Later the quartet packed up and the DJ Jane had hired came out, ramping up the party a bit. Everyone seemed to have a good time. As promised, the World Series trophies were out on display, and Jane wasn't the only one insisting on having her picture taken with them. There was also an exciting moment at which someone pointed out that Nina hadn't touched the champagne and everyone correctly guessed why. All in all, it was the best party Jane had ever been to, and yet she couldn't wait for it to be over so she could be alone with her new wife. Finally, a limo arrived to collect the two brides and take them to the waterfront hotel where they would be spending the night.

Jane couldn't keep her hands off Maura in the backseat of the limo. She held her close, trailing lips and tongue over her wife's bare shoulders and neck while Maura's fingers lightly traced her collarbones. When they arrived at their destination, they hurriedly gathered their belongings and rushed hand in hand up to their room. As soon as the door closed behind them, Jane switched the light on and began steering Maura backwards towards the bed, tongue in her mouth, fumbling desperately with her skirt. There were a _lot_ of layers under here.

"Okay, where the fuck is your pussy?" Jane finally demanded, flustered. "It's like digging for buried treasure down here."

Maura laughed. "I'll help you." She lay back on the bed, gathered her silk skirt and the many layers of tulle underneath, and lifted to reveal that she already wasn't wearing underwear.

"Damn, lady, were you au naturel under here this whole time?" Jane breathed, kneeling before Maura as her hand crept up a smooth leg.

"Not the _whole_ time, but near the end I decided it was time to start getting ready." Smiling serenely, Maura spread her legs apart a bit more, revealing her glistening pussy.

"How'd you get this wet already? I've barely touched you."

"I've been looking at you for hours. I bet you are too."

"I know I will be after this." Jane's fingers had finally made their way to the top of Maura's soft thigh and onto her heat. She got down on her stomach and captured her with her mouth, drinking in her juices as she lubed up her fingers and slid them inside. Maura cried out, letting her dress fall back down around Jane, leaving Jane in her own little wedding dress tent in which she was all alone with Maura's pussy. She didn't mind that at all. She kept busy licking and sucking and thrusting, playing Maura like a well-tuned instrument she'd been practicing for years, until she heard the sweet sounds of Maura's orgasm.

"Remember when we did this the first time, in Paris, and you had to tell me what to do?" Jane asked as she crawled out from under Maura's dress.

"You knew what to do. You just needed some encouragement," Maura said fondly, still lying back on the pillows. "You've raised my body temperature and now I'm hot in this dress."

"Guess I'd better get you out of it then." Jane lifted the blonde from the pillows so she could unbutton her dress, then carefully slid it off of her and draped it over a nearby chair. She took off the petticoat as well and then paused for a moment to take a mental picture of Maura wearing nothing but her veil before slowly unpinning it and placing it with the dress.

"Now you," insisted Maura, reaching for Jane's hair so she could take everything down.

"You like for me to wear my hair up, but then you can't wait to get it back down," Jane observed.

"Well, it looks sexy either way," Maura told her as the curls began to fall around Jane's shoulders. "But it has to be down during sex so I can get my fingers in it."

Jane chuckled. "You _do_ like to do that."

"You're so beautiful," Maura murmured, caressing the exposed skin of Jane's shoulders, chest, and upper back. She unzipped the dress partway and pulled it down just enough to pop out Jane's breasts. She took one nipple in her mouth and rolled it between her teeth as her hand began pulling up Jane's skirt, feeling blindly for her way underneath. Her struggle was somewhat amusing to Jane, given that she had experienced the same problem earlier, but she was horny as hell now and didn't have the patience to keep waiting. So she lifted her dress, giving Maura's fingers easy access.

"Sorry, I'm still wearing underwear," Jane apologized. "I'm not as good at thinking ahead as you are. But it's a thong!"

No sooner had the words left her mouth when she felt eager fingers grasp the thong and pull it downwards, impatiently yanking it off. Then Maura's lips moved to Jane's other nipple, encircling it as her fingers drew slow circles around Jane's clit. Moaning, Jane ran her fingers through Maura's silky hair and up and down her back. Her skin was extra soft from all the spa treatments she'd had done yesterday, and Jane supposed hers was as well. She made a mental note to thank Maura for her wisdom in insisting they get that done.

Soon, though, she found herself unable to think about anything but the deft fingers now moving in quick circles around her clit. Maura moved from one nipple to the other, sucking, nibbling, circling, until Jane's back arched and she yelled loud enough to let the people in the next room know how much fun she was having.

After that, Maura eased the wedding dress the rest of the way off and snuggled up to her new wife, fingers idly circled her breast.

"I will say, I'm enjoying married life immensely so far," Jane remarked.

Maura giggled. "It won't be real married life until we're back from the honeymoon and the excitement has died down and we're just living our day-to-day lives together."

"Well, _that_ we've been doing for years, so I already know we enjoy that. But now there will also be sex, which makes it so much better."

Maura kissed Jane's chest and rested her head on her shoulder. "It does. And I _have_ always enjoyed doing everyday things with you."

"I'm not sure what was wrong with us, though. Why did we do all that boring normal stuff _without_ the sex for so long?"

"I don't know," Maura laughed. "But we're on the right track now."

"Yeah, we are." Jane pulled her close and kissed her. "Remember last year when we were getting ready to go to Paris and you said something about starting the next big adventure?"

"Yes. It was a much greater adventure than I was expecting!"

"Mmm. Now we're starting another one. You think this one will surprise us as well?"

"At this point, I would be surprised if it _wasn't_ surprising!"

Jane chuckled and closed her eyes, her fingers tracing their way through her wife's hair. _My wife_. Those were words she knew she'd be repeating in her head for some time to come. "As long as you're with me, I'm up for any kind of adventure."

"Well, for starters," said Maura, "our plane to Greece doesn't leave until three tomorrow, and we don't have to check out of the hotel until noon. So, there's no real reason why we _need_ a good night's sleep."

Jane burst out laughing. "So, what did you have in mind instead?" she asked innocently.

"Jane!" Maura lifted her head, her face a mask of horrified surprise. "It's our _wedding_ night! We should devote it to—"

"Nonstop fucking?"

Maura fought back a smile while giving Jane a reproachful look. "You knew what I meant, didn't you?"

"Of course I did." Jane gently rolled Maura onto her back, lowering her own naked body onto the blonde's. "And I absolutely agree."


	22. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Jane should be next," Maura whispered to Angela, hastily tucking her program into her purse and pulling out her camera.

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli," the man on stage read into the microphone, and the woman Maura loved strode across the stage in her cap and gown to receive her diploma case.

"That's your mama," Maura said to her stomach. She knew it was silly, but she couldn't stop herself. She snapped picture after picture of Jane, her heart swelling with pride. Jane shook hands with the college president, then turned to where she knew her family was sitting and blew Maura a kiss before leaving the stage. Maura thought her heart would explode. Jane might be 20 years older than most of the other graduates, but she was by far the most beautiful, and she was all Maura's.

When the ceremony was over, Angela helped Maura from her chair and supported her as they made their way through the crowds and outside to where the graduates were congregating. Maura couldn't help feeling a little sentimental, remembering her own graduation in this same spot and how her parents had both come to see her. She hadn't imagined that she would come back two decades later to see her wife graduate, and it had taken some work to convince Jane to even go through with the ceremony. "I'm too old," she had insisted, but Maura wasn't having it. Jane had worked hard for this, and she deserved all the pomp and circumstance any other graduate would get.

When she spotted her wife, she began waddling enthusiastically in her direction. Grinning, Jane quickly closed the gap between them so her pregnant wife wouldn't have to walk any further than necessary.

"Jane, I'm so proud of you!" Maura cried, throwing her arms around the brunette, who leaned down to kiss her. The height difference was particularly noticeable today, since Jane was wearing heels and Maura wasn't.

"How are they doing?" Jane asked, putting her hands on Maura's burgeoning stomach.

"He slept through it, but she's been kicking a lot," Maura told her. She moved Jane's hand to the spot where she could feel their daughter's feet tapping and watched Jane's face light up as she felt it too.

"She's so strong already," Jane said proudly. "I can't wait to teach them both how to play basketball. And softball. And football. And hockey."

"And I'll teach them fencing," said Maura.

"Well yeah, obviously they have to learn fencing! That sport can save a life. We might not be here today if it hadn't been for your mad fencing skills."

Maura grinned. "Now that I've found you, next I need to find a ladies' room."

"I'm not surprised," Jane said with a smile. "Come on, you can use the one in Wohler's Hall."

"After this, we're going out to eat!" said Angela.

"Yes, food sounds good!" Maura agreed.

Jane chuckled. "I'm sure it does. Food always sounds good to you now that you're eating for three."

"Don't give her a hard time, Janie," admonished Angela. "Carrying one baby is hard enough; she has to carry two, and it's her first pregnancy!"

"I'm not giving her a hard time! I'm proud of my wife and babies," said Jane, putting a protective arm around Maura as they walked.

Maura gratefully leaned against Jane as they made their way to the nearest bathroom. She was just entering her third trimester, and already she felt enormous and exhausted. She was happy, though. She couldn't wait to embark on the next big adventure with Jane: motherhood.

Maura had reserved a nice table at a fancy restaurant for their celebration dinner, and she was famished by the time they all met up there. Jane pulled a chair out for her, and when the waiter brought bread to their table, she put the biggest piece on Maura's plate. Maura quickly buttered it up and devoured it. Whatever Angela said, Jane was taking excellent care of her and the babies, and Maura loved her for it. Well, for that and about a million other things.

Jane cleared her throat when she noticed that everyone was finishing up the main course. The Rizzoli family, plus a few friends, turned their attention to the guest of honor.

"I just wanted to say a few words of thanks," she announced, looking a bit self-conscious. "A couple years ago, I wasn't sure where my life was heading. All I knew was that I was pushing forty, and my life hadn't changed that much since I was thirty. I didn't have a lot to brag about. I was single and childless. I had no real home to call my own. I was hung up on a woman I believed would never love me back, and I was about to leave a job I loved and move away from family and friends, from my home, just so I could feel like my life was going somewhere." She put an arm around Maura and hugged her close. "And now look at me. I'm a married police sergeant with a college degree, and I'm about to be a mother – of _two_. I can't even believe how much my life has changed in the past two years. I'm finally achieving dreams I didn't even think were possible. The big turning point was when I decided to go to Paris with Maura, but it's thanks to the love and support of all of you that I was able to come back to BPD, make sergeant, plan a perfect wedding with the girl of my dreams, and get through two years of college to get my degree. It's because of all of your support that I have a hope of making lieutenant in the near future, and that I'm not completely scared out of my wits about having twins in the next few months." Everyone chuckled. "I guess my point is, you should never be afraid of going after your dreams, whatever they are. And also, Maura's the greatest."

She gave Maura a kiss, and everyone raised their glasses of champagne and sparkling cider in agreement.

"We're all very proud of you," beamed Angela.

"And we love you so much. You've come such a long way," said Maura, leaning over to kiss her wife's cheek.

"Being with you makes me feel like I can do anything," Jane told her. "And I _would_ do anything for you, for the three of you."

"Anything?"

"You name it."

Maura smiled. "Can we order dessert?"

Jane laughed. "Yes," she said. "We can order dessert."

As Maura looked around the table, she remembered the horrible feeling she'd had two years ago that her beloved Jane was slipping away from her. Now, she sat surrounded by Rizzolis, because they were _her_ family as well as Jane's. She had the wedding rings Jane gave her on a chain around her neck (they'd go back on her finger after her pregnancy swelling was gone), and the babies she and Jane had decided to have together were growing inside of her. Jane was at her side, where she belonged, wearing the rings Maura had given her. She knew she wouldn't have to worry about her slipping away ever again.

 **Thank you everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!** **If you did, please check out my other Rizzles stories, and also my published books (links in my profile)! Thank you again! I really enjoyed sharing my fantasy eighth season with you!**


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